Spokane and eastern Washington
Somewhere between the towel and the car at a Spokane lake, the keys, a phone or a ring stayed behind
Spokane, Liberty Lake, Medical Lake, Cheney, Mount Spokane and Yakima
Within an hour's drive of Spokane there are 76 lakes, by Visit Spokane's count. The county parks at Liberty Lake, Bear Lake and Fish Lake each have a swimming beach. Winter brings sledding at Manito Park and ski trails on Mount Spokane. Car keys, a phone or a lost ring can stay behind on a beach day in August or a snow day in January.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Spokane and eastern Washington with a metal detectorist who can search there. Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
The service also covers engagement rings, Oura rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, chains, Apple Watches, key fobs, metal-framed glasses and hearing aids.
While you are still standing on the sand, the grass or the snow
The county swim beaches at Liberty Lake, Bear Lake and Fish Lake have no lifeguard on duty, so there is no stand to ask at. Photograph the view towards the water and the view back towards the car, with something fixed in each frame, such as the dock. Drop a pin. On snow, do the same with the nearest tree or sign.
Then message us on WhatsApp, beginning with the city or the lake, since Spokane and Yakima are different parts of eastern Washington. We ask when you last had it and whether the ground has been mown, groomed or ploughed since.
Places we cover in Spokane and eastern Washington
- Spokane
- Yakima
- Liberty Lake Regional Park
- Bear Lake Regional Park
- Fish Lake Regional Park and Cheney
- Medical Lake and Waterfront Park
- Riverfront Park
- Manito Park
- Riverside State Park
- Nine Mile Falls and Lake Spokane
- Mount Spokane State Park
- Lake Roosevelt, Porcupine Bay, Spring Canyon and Kettle Falls
- Yakima Greenway
- Sarg Hubbard Park and Sherman Park
- Yakima Sportsman State Park
- Randall Park
Named places around Spokane and Yakima, and what is there
County lakes, two Spokane city parks, two state parks, Lake Roosevelt and the river path in Yakima.
Liberty Lake Regional Park and the lake's only public swim beach
Liberty Lake is about 25 minutes from downtown Spokane, going by Visit Spokane. The county park takes in 3,591 acres (about 1,450 hectares) of wetland, lake shore and forest, with a campground and an 8.3-mile (13.4 km) loop trail. Its sandy beach is the only public one on the lake, with a dock and a roped swim area. Say whether you were on the sand, on the dock or inside the rope.
Bear Lake, Fish Lake and Waterfront Park at Medical Lake
Bear Lake Regional Park is 15 miles (24 km) north of Spokane beside the Newport Highway. Its spring-fed lake has swimming beaches and three fishing piers. Fish Lake Regional Park, in the rural south-west of the county, has a swimming beach, and a paved trail links it with Cheney. On the southern shore of Medical Lake, Waterfront Park has a swimming beach, a boat launch, a playground and two lit softball fields.
Riverfront Park downtown and Manito Park on the South Hill
Riverfront Park is the city's downtown park, with walking paths and views of Spokane Falls. Its Skate Ribbon is a pathway 650 feet (198 metres) long, ice in winter and open to roller skates in the warmer months. Manito Park, on the South Hill, has lawns, an upper and a lower playground, Mirror Pond and Duncan Garden. Visit Spokane says the pond often freezes for skaters, and names the sledding hill at Lower Manito.
Riverside State Park and the snow on Mount Spokane
Riverside State Park has roughly 100 miles (160 km) of trails along the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers. Its Bowl and Pitcher campground has a swinging bridge across to the trails on the opposite bank. At the eastern end of Lake Spokane, the park's Nine Mile Recreation Area has two docks and a designated swimming area, and State Parks places its Spokane House Interpretive Center in Nine Mile Falls. Mount Spokane State Park, in the Selkirk Mountains, tops out at 5,883 feet (1,793 metres). Winter there means nearly 37 miles (60 km) of groomed Nordic ski trails. A glove pulled off at a junction could take a ring with it, so give us the trail name and the nearest sign.
Lake Roosevelt, behind Grand Coulee Dam
Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area has day use beaches at Porcupine Bay, Spring Canyon, Kettle Falls, Hunters, Keller Ferry and more. The lake is a working reservoir, and its level can sit anywhere from 1,208 to 1,290 feet with the dam's operations, so the water's edge moves. Send the date and a photo of the shore along with the beach name.
Yakima's river path and its irrigated parks
The Yakima Greenway has nearly 20 miles (32 km) of pathway. Sarg Hubbard Park has a Reflection Pond and a playground, and the Noel Path follows the Yakima River from there to Sherman Park and its fenced off-leash dog area. Yakima Sportsman State Park is 266 acres (108 hectares) of lawns, shade trees and campsites. In the city, Randall Park has a duck pond and a nature trail.
Dealing with us, in plain terms
Whoever replies first also reports back
The person who reads your first WhatsApp message is the person who tells you how the search went.
Your dock or your slope, seen on a screen before the drive
Your pin, your two photos and the hour it happened are sent on as soon as a detectorist is found. They have looked at the place on a screen before they see it in person.
Still water and moving water are different asks
A ring in knee-deep water inside the rope at Liberty Lake is a fair search. A phone dropped from the swinging bridge at the Bowl and Pitcher is in a river whose current could carry it on. That is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
The costs, while it is still your decision
We explain the costs before any search is booked.
Weather and ground east of the Cascades
Irrigated grass in dry country
Liberty Lake Regional Park lists irrigated lawn areas among its grounds. Yakima Sportsman is, in the state park system's own words, an irrigated green zone in an otherwise desert area. August is normally a dry month at Spokane airport, going by the National Weather Service's long-term averages. For a search on grass, tell us when the sprinklers run and when the mowers come.
About 45 inches of snow in a typical winter
Spokane airport's long-term average is about 45 inches (115 cm) of snow in a typical winter, on National Weather Service figures. After a loss in snow, note whether the slope has been groomed, or the car park ploughed, since that day.
How deep it was on you, and what was underfoot
For a search in the water at Liberty Lake, Bear Lake, Fish Lake or Medical Lake, tell us how deep it was on you, ankle, knee, waist or chest, and what the bottom felt like underfoot.
What we would want to know, case by case
We packed up at the Liberty Lake beach and the car keys are in none of the bags. Do I ask the park or you?
Both, and the park comes first. With lost keys on a busy beach, somebody may have handed them in, so ask at the entry booth. Then send us where your towels were in relation to the dock, and the way you walked back to the car.
My iPhone came out of my jacket on the Nordic trails at Mount Spokane and the battery is dead by now. Find My still shows this morning's dot. Can I go by that?
Use it as a starting point, and screenshot it now. Apple's support page says the last known location stays visible in the Find My app for up to seven days after the battery runs out. With a lost phone on ski trails we also ask which trails you skied and where you stopped to take it out.
My wedding band came off somewhere on the sledding hill at Lower Manito on Saturday, and it has snowed twice since. Which details still count?
The ones that do not change with the snow. Tell us which side of the slope you were on, how far up, and what you were level with, such as a tree or a fence line.
My ring came off this morning while we packed the tent on the grass at Yakima Sportsman State Park. I am tempted by a metal detector rental. Sensible?
Quite possibly. A loss a few hours old on a lawn, in a patch the size of a tent pitch, is what renting suits best, and the same goes for dry sand. Wet sand, water, a wide area such as a stretch of the Greenway, or an item as small as an earring is work for a detectorist.
My son's metal-framed glasses are in the grass by the playground at Sarg Hubbard Park. All I get when I type metal detecting Washington state is hobby forums. Who does the looking?
A metal detectorist does, and we arrange it. On WhatsApp you send which side of the playground, the time and a couple of photos. We find a detectorist who can reach Yakima, pass it all on, and come back to you with a day, the costs and the odds.
My Oura ring slipped off while I was swimming at Waterfront Park in Medical Lake, about chest deep. What can I give you instead of a pin?
Sight lines and depth. Tell us what you were level with on the shore, and whether you were nearer the boat launch or the playground. Chest deep on you, plus your height, narrows it to a strip of lake bed.
My father's hearing aid came out on the trails across the swinging bridge from the Bowl and Pitcher campground. He walked for an hour. Be straight with me.
An hour of trail is too much ground for something that small, so the job is to cut it down. Ask him when he last remembers hearing well, and where he stopped to take off a hat or his glasses. Those stops are where a search would begin.
Spokane and eastern Washington
Sand in August or snow in January, the first message is the same
Which lake, lawn or hill, which day, and the two photos you took.
A lost ring at Bear Lake, a key fob on the Greenway and a phone on a Mount Spokane ski trail all begin with the same few details. Send them on WhatsApp and you will get a straight reply about the odds.