An Ode to Williams Lake

Williams Lake kept me sane the summer of 2013, the year my husband and I moved from Puerto Rico to the Inland Northwest.

Stevens County Williams Lake

When I make that comment to people in Spokane, they immediately think of Spokane County’s Williams Lake. Located a half-hour drive south of the city, near the town of Cheney, that Williams Lake has long attracted Spokane residents on warm summer days.

Spokane County Williams Lake

Small at 317 acres, it’s shaped like a narrow bottle with a long neck. Scraggly pine forest and an assortment of boulders and cliffs ring the lake, one of dozens nestled in the region’s channeled scablands. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks it regularly with rainbow and cutthroat trout, and fisherman can take their boats out from the public launch. There are also two resorts – Klink’s Resort with day-use facilities and a well-known restaurant and, on the far end, Bunker’s Resort. I visited here once in late spring, before the lowland region got too hot, and enjoyed a refreshing swim.

But it was not the lake that kept me sane the summer of 2013.

There is another Williams Lake, set in Stevens Country halfway between the city of Colville and the small town of Northport. At 34 acres, it is one-tenth the size of the Spokane County lake. The Williams Lake Road borders the water and opens onto a small dirt access. There are no homes, resorts, or concrete boat launches. On the opposite side, a forested hill swoops up from the water. Grasses on both ends provide habitat for ducks and other waterfowl. Trout live in the lake, but it is only open to fishermen in winter months. Dark rippling water, green forest, blue sky, white clouds—a tiny jewel amid the many lakes of the Inland Northwest.

While we still lived in Puerto Rico, my family and I often passed the lake on our visits to my parents-in-law’s cabin in Northport, Washington. Occasionally we would stop, inner tubes in tow, and use it as a giant swimming hole. The first time we went, we (coming from the Caribbean) expected the water to be liquid ice and were pleasantly surprised to find it only slightly chilled.

The summer my husband and I left Puerto Rico for the Inland Northwest, we stayed at the cabin in Northport. When I wasn’t looking for a home in the Spokane or Seattle area, I had long, hot days to fill. Leaving Puerto Rico after so many years had been wrenching, and I found myself homesick for friends, the beach, tropical mountains, lively street-life, island food, and the general routine I’d known for decades. A saving grace for me was Lake Williams. I’d drive there, blow up the inner tube, push off, and spend an hour or so floating on the water in the company of iridescent dragonflies. From time to time, I’d slip out of the tube and swim with the fish which, for the most part, stayed below me. Cars and trucks would pass, and the occasional family of bathers would stop, but for the most part I had the place to myself.

In October of that year we moved to Spokane. Now I have an inflatable kayak and visit other larger lakes when in the area, but I still drive by Williams Lake, and, when I do, I give it a very fond salute.