Selah Butte
With its crown of radio towers, Selah Butte doesn't seem, at first glance, like a desert wilderness. But the expanse of open public lands that surround this massive butte harbors some of the best desert ecosystems in the area. Selah stands on the eastern edge of the Yakima River Canyon, offering amazing views of the canyon and the sheer wall of the Yakima Rim.
The parking area puts you in the middle of a vast 10-acre carpet of Hooker's balsamroot. The golden glowers stretch out over the edge of the butte, creating a wonderful foreground for the stellar scenic backdrop of Yakima Canyon. There are no trails here, so simply wander north along the ridge, stepping carefully to avoid the prickly hedgehog cactus that's common here. After more than a mile of walking, the views get better and better. A long spinelike ridge juts out into Yakima Canyon and provides awesome views back along the ridge you've been following and the canyon to the next big hill: Baldy Butte. On clear days, look for paragliders soaring above that knob (they sometimes fly from Selah, too). Roam north and west at your leisure, going as far and as fast as you like. The hike is the goal here, with no real destination.
Driving Directions:
From Ellensburg, drive east on Interstate 82 to exit 26 for Canyon Road/Selah. After exiting, turn and drive 2.5 miles on Canyon Road (State Route 821). At 2.5 miles, turn right onto a gravel road and drive the steep washboarded road up the steep slope. At 1.6 miles, you'll pass through a gate (leave it as you found it: open or closed). This is the start of the BLM lands. Continue another 1.6 miles (a total of 3.2 miles from State Route 821). At a sharp right bend in the road, find a cleared parking area (may be partially grass covered) just off the left side of the road. Recent Trip Reports
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Day hike
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Wildflowers blooming
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Directions to the TH are accurate in Bauer and Nelson's Best Desert Hikes book. The flower show begi...
Directions to the TH are accurate in Bauer and Nelson's Best Desert Hikes book. The flower show begins after passing through the gate and the start of the BLM lands. The road is rough and steep but can be driven by all but low clearance vehicles. There are literally trillions of Large-headed clovers and yellow desert parsleys. We stopped many times to take pictures on our way to the TH so if you have a low clearance vehicle park it inside the gate an walk to the TH. Flowers are just beginning at the top. Hooker's balsamroot is blooming at the TH. We saw lupine, phlox, and sagebrush violets blooming at the top. Thyme Buckwheat, hedgehog cactus, and bitterroot will probably bloom in 2-3 weeks. One has to watch every step they take because of the many plants. Mt Adams, M Rainier, and the Stuart Range were beautiful as is the view down to Rosa Dam and the Yakima River. This is an easy stroll through a wildflower paradise.
Day hike
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Wildflowers blooming
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I took a short hike on Selah Butte this afternoon. I usually stop just inside the fence and hike al...
I took a short hike on Selah Butte this afternoon. I usually stop just inside the fence and hike along the edge of the rim on the west, but the wildflowers were mostly gone, so I drove up near the top where the wildflowers are much more abundant. The road is very rough. Near the top of the butte and beyond that wildflower variety and bloom is excellent. A few Simpson's (hedgehog) cactus are blooming but they are about gone. Desert parsleys (mostly nine-leaved desert parsley, Gardner's penstemen, and theyme leaved buckwheat dominate the bloom, but upland larkspur, yellow desert daisy, bitterroot, Hooker's balsamroot, low hawksbeard, lupine (bingen?), Douglas buckwheat, and others that don't come to mind now are blooming. Many are past their peak, but bitteroot blooms are few and far between, but thousands of buds about the burst are present and will make a beautiful display within a few days. Saw one rubber boa and one gopher snake. No tick yet. Although partly cloudy this afternoon the weather was beautiful, and the soft light was excellent for wildflower photos.
Selah Butte
— May 12, 2010
— Mountain Lover
Day hike
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Wildflowers blooming
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I've been wanting to see the blooming hedgehog cactus and thanks to recent reports, I decided to try...
I've been wanting to see the blooming hedgehog cactus and thanks to recent reports, I decided to try my luck. After a slow 3.2 mile drive from the paved Yakima Canyon Road (30 minutes worth of driving b/c of the very rocky and rutted road), I reached the "trailhead". Basically, when you have almost reached the radio tower on the top, the road makes a sharp bend to the right for that last push up the final knoll. Don't drive up to the towers. Park at the open grassy space at that right bend. I followed the faint jeep road and it flattens out for a bit, then starts to drop and lose elevation on the backside. Nice big head clover, lupine, buckwheat here but no cactus. I scrambled up the hill (ridge to my left) and plateaued with great views to the west. Mt Adams, Mt Rainier, and then the Stuart range up north. Yakima River at your feet. I saw two deer, and no snakes thank goodness. It was up on this ridge top that I found the cactus. Actually, if I'd have walked the ridge from the start and not followed the jeep road very far, I would have found them faster.
Flowers: bitterroot leaves (what a show this will be in a few weeks), hedgehog cactus, balsamroot, bighead clover, phlox, lupine, thyme-leaved buckwheat, pepperpod, prairie stars, milk vetch (long stemmed and wooly pod), bearded owl clover, desert parsley, narrow-leaved haplopappus. Day hike
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This was by far the best "flower show" of our 3 day week-end! The TH is reached by driving the Canyo...
This was by far the best "flower show" of our 3 day week-end! The TH is reached by driving the Canyon Road (State HWY 821) and turning left on on Selah Creek Drive. We were camped at Big Pines, one of the BLM campgrounds along the Yakima River, so went south from there to reach the TH. One can also approach it from Interstate 82 as described in the Desert Hikes Book. However, we prefer the scenic, leisurely drive along the Yakima River. The TH is about 3.2 miles from the Canyon Road. After passing through the gate and entering BLM land the road becomes more steep and rough. A passenger car can be driven slowly and carefully if its clearance is not too low! The parking area was covered with yellow desert parsley. This is a pleasant round trip stroll of about 4 miles with very little elevation gain. The book states the best season is from June through November. However, by June the flower show will probably be gone. Except for the dessert parsley and the starting buckwheats the yellows are past their prime. There are literally hundreds of bitterroot buds from 1/2 mile on and we had to watch our every step to avoid stepping on them!-- We only saw one blooming! I don't know how long it takes for the buds to open, but when they do, the display will be beautiful! The buckwheats were just beginning to bloom and should be good by next week-end! There were many blooming hedgehog cacti. On the east side of the butte there were many lupine. Big-head clover, larkspur, penstemon, Thompson's Paintbrush,milk-vetch were present, but fading! Mt Adams, Mt Rainier, and The Stuart Range were a beautiful back ground for the flowers. We saw 15-20 sheep on a game trail below us. As we reached the end of the Butte, we disturbed 2 deer that were bedded down behind some rocks. Strolling through the wildflowers was a GREAT way to enjoy Mother's Day!
Day hike
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Wildflowers blooming
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We turned off State Route 821 (Yakima Canyon Road) onto Selah Springs Dr.and drove 3.2 miles to the ...
We turned off State Route 821 (Yakima Canyon Road) onto Selah Springs Dr.and drove 3.2 miles to the parking area as described in Best Desert Hikes Washington by Dan Nelson and Alan Bauer. The last half of this road is very rocky, but driveable for most vehicles if driven slowly and carefully! After passing through the gate at 1.6 miles from 821 we were on BLM land. There were fields of "spent" large-headed clover which must have been beautiful in their prime! There were several Horned Larks perching on the sagebrush as we drove the road to the TH. The Hooker's balsamroot was also "spent", but we decided to walk north along the ridge to the first white pole to hopefully find some fresh flowers! At about 1/8 of a mile from the TH we were glad we had decided to walk as we began to see fields of thyme-leaved buckwheat and bitterroot.It was difficult to walk and not step on the bitterroot! How beautiful were these fields and the view down to the Yakima River! We hiked about 2 miles one way.The temperature was in the low 90's, but there was a breeze which made the heat tolerable! The bitterroot were just starting to bloom so should be good for 1-2 more weeks! We also saw, Oregon sunshine, pentstemon,thread-leaved phacelia,and Hooker's onion. We saw very few hedgehog cactus and their blooms were "spent".
Selah Butte
— Oct 07, 2005
— HikingBert
Day hike
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Being in this area, it's strange that there were local things to do that I never knew about. This i...
Being in this area, it's strange that there were local things to do that I never knew about. This is hike #20 in the (newish) ""Best Desert Hikes"" book that I JUST got! This trek pretty much starts out at the top and you just get to roam around the top of the Butte and it's surroundings. |
 Selah Butte. Photo by Bob and Barb.
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