Yakima Skyline Ridge / RimUnmatched desert wildflowers bless the dry brown hills with vibrant colors. You'll also find an array of birds and animals--swallows, swifts, bluebirds, chukars, quails, magpies, partridges, hawks, and eagles grace the sky while deer, elk, bighorn sheep, coyotes, rock chucks (marmots), badgers, hares, and an army of other small mammals roam the desert floor. While an official trail leads up a broad ravine from the trailhead, a better hiking option is to park 0.5 mile short of the trailhead area and climb the open grass slopes toward the ridge top to experience the desert environment more directly. This route puts you among the plants and animals--it's literally a stroll in a wild garden. What's more, you'll find it impossible to get lost doing this. The open terrain and gentle slope ensure that the road and your vehicle are in sight for the entire first mile of your trek to the ridge top. Once at the top of the slope, you'll notice the far side of the ridge drops off in a steep cliff down to the Yakima River. By turning left and following this rim, you'll soon intercept the official trail, which hugs the rim, keeping the river far below always in sight. Journey out as far as you like before returning. (You can also head south on the trail along the rim.) As the flowers color the landscape, they also perfume the air. Sage provides a constant, steady background on the wind, but as the warm sun heats the new plant growth, an intoxicating blend of scents awaits you. The air itself becomes a veritable stew of aromas as the ever-present sage is joined by the pungent odors wafting from the leaves of wild parsleys and onions. Through it all swirls the sweet aroma of new grasses and blooming flowers.
Driving Directions:
From Seattle, drive east on Interstate 90 to exit 110 and Interstate 82. Drive I-82 to the Selah/Canyon Road exit 26. Turn right off the exit and immediately turn left onto Harrison Road and drive 1.9 miles southwest before turning right onto Wenas Road. Continue 2.8 miles to a Y junction (near a rural fire station). Stay right (straight ahead on Gibson Road). In 0.3 mile after turning onto Gibson Road, turn right on Buffalo Road, where the pavement ends and the L. T. Murray State Wildlife Recreation Area begins. Turn left into a large parking area surrounded by an elk drift fence. Park here or drive through the gate (close it behind you) and proceed up a dirt track another 1.5 miles to the official trailhead. Start walking toward the rim from anywhere between the two parking areas. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife permit required. Recent Trip Reports
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Day hike
Issues:
No water source
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Hiked to top of the first summit (2737 ft) twice, once Jan 13 for sunset and again the next morning...
Hiked to top of the first summit (2737 ft) twice, once Jan 13 for sunset and again the next morning for sunrise, hoping to get some nice photos from here. I'll replace my phone photo with some better SLR photos in a couple days.
Driving to the trail head was easy with my Subaru Outback. Regular-clearance cars will need to take it a bit easy, but it's passable. You will need a Washington "Discover Pass" to park here, though in theory, you could park outside the gate about 1.5 miles short of the trail head without one. No snow on the days of my visit, though this may change shortly. Great views up the Yakima Canyon from the summit. I arrived a bit too late for the Jan 13 sunset, but scoped out the area for sunrise the next morning. Then hiked out in the dark and spent the night in Yakima. Hiked up again next morning in the dark for a sunset delayed about half hour by a band of clouds on the horizon. Got about 15 minutes of photography in before the sun faded behind clouds again. But the golden grass against blue sky and/or cool clouds was beautiful. The trail is in good shape. Nice comfortable climbing slope. Not too steep, but efficient. Brad
Yakima Skyline Ridge, Yakima Rim Skyline Trail
— May 28, 2011
— curiousgage
Overnight
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
No water source
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My girlfriend and I had problems finding the route, so I wanted to write a report to clarify how to...
My girlfriend and I had problems finding the route, so I wanted to write a report to clarify how to do this hike for others who attempt the trail without a map. We drove in on Sheep Company Road and about 4.5 miles in passed a pullout on the left (north) side of the road that had a bunch of big rocks on the outer perimeter. After some exploration, we parked at this pullout and walked east to the intersection of Old Durr and Roza Creek Road. There is a small labeled sign at this juncture that points to Roza Creek. Old Durr goes north to the ridge and Roza Creek Road goes east along the valley. This juncture is the start and finish of the loop. We went east along Roza Creek Road and hit the creek a couple miles in. We followed the trail by the creek, then after the creek petered out, there was a trail (a very old road, it looked like) ascending north up to the ridge.. this is the trail you want to take to complete the loop. If you continue eastward you'll hit railroad tracks and the Yakima River. We went to the river, then backtracked and went north on that trail up to the ridge. The trail at this point gets a bit hard to follow in spots--we were fooled by some dry river bed paths. But eventually we spotted the real trail and regained our way. We camped partway up the ridge on an open butte. Once you get up on the ridge, the trail becomes much more obvious, more of a road. So once on the ridge, above and north of the lower trail we were on before, we just followed it northwestward. We followed this trail several miles until we hit a main junction leading down. This road is Old Durr--it heads south and will lead back to the loop starting point. The junction came a little ways before (east) of the big towers.. there is another junction there that also leads down. We followed Old Durr southward several miles back to the junction near the parking area.
Trail conditions were good. We had some showers the first day, but the second day was dry and beautiful. We knew Roza Creek was the only water source, so we brought a lot of water on the ridge. Don't try driving past the pullout unless you've got a four-wheel drive vehicle. The last part of the hike, the north-south bit along Old Durr road, was a bit tedious, but the rest was great! Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
No water source
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Before you go:
You can buy passes at Ellensburg Fred Meyers. Ask for the Fish & Wildlife Vehicle pass.
You...
Before you go:
You can buy passes at Ellensburg Fred Meyers. Ask for the Fish & Wildlife Vehicle pass. You can get a map from the BLM office Region 3, Yakima. Phone 509-457-9305 Cliff Notes: Trail was in good shape, lots of beautiful wild flower (lupines!). We saw three snakes, including a big one by the abandon school has, but found no ticks. The Twin Springs has stagnate, unappealing water, so the only water source we used was the river. We found ice on our tent one morning. We turned this into a relaxing two days backpack. With my 65 years old, that it was a perfect duration. We just had one car and we started at the south trail head. We camped on the ridge above the Roza Dam on a flat sheltered spot because it was really windy and it gave us a nice view. You could also camp at Roza creek (there’s no water in the creek so crossing is easy), but it wouldn’t be as pretty and you’re right across the river from the road. The second day we hiked with day packs along the Umtamnum ridge and returned to the same camp site. You can only get water from the river near the Roza creek crossing. The elevation gain from the south trail head to the ridge isn’t much, but the downhill and uphill to and from the river is pretty significant.
Yakima Skyline Ridge
— Apr 09, 2011
— Mountain Lover
Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
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Great conditions, sunny with intermittent clouds for cover and a soft breeze. We drove through the gate off of...
Great conditions, sunny with intermittent clouds for cover and a soft breeze. We drove through the gate off of Buffalo Road (where the horse trailers usually park). Driving 1.7 miles on the rutted and potentially tire popping rocky road, we reached a trailhead. One car there when we arrived, four additional when we returned. The trail gains steadily up a canyon with sloping hills on either side. In 1 to 1.5 miles, it joins the trail that tracks along the river ridge(Skyline Trail). From this junction -- to the right (south), one can see the hill that overlooks Roza Dam that is one's goal when hiking in from the south trailhead. So our trail brought us out north of there. We turned left (north), viewing the dam from above with good views of Selah Butte and Mt Baldy on the river's east side. We decided to climb to the highest peak (don't know the name of it) and the trail skirts the right side of it (riverside) and comes out on the north side of that peak. The main trail keeps going and starts to drop here but there are old fence posts that lead to the top of the highest point, and a trail up so that's where we headed for our turnaround point -- Gracie's Point--was a sign stuck in some rocks at top. 360 degree view -- Manastash ridge, Stuart Range to Rainier to Adams and to the more barren hills to the east. Back the same way.
Flowers: desert parsley, buttercups, violets (several different colors), bitterroot and balsamroot leaves -- both a little early for bloom, yellow bells, steppe sweetpea. Wildlife: birds. No ticks or snakes encountered yet. Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
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We arrived late 10ish, we drove past the gate and parked about 2 miles in. Road was pretty rough, not...
We arrived late 10ish, we drove past the gate and parked about 2 miles in. Road was pretty rough, not sure I would have attempted with a car. We were on the hunt for early flowers we found a few but not enough will be a few more weeks till the color begins. Temperature was in the 50's and very comfortable. We saw a coyote half way up he was cruising up a hill side. On the ridge we were in the middle of a marathon (good for them) I'm not the running type but totally respect the one's that do. We did the step aside thing for a while and decided to head back down, we explored more on the way down taking a side trail and having lunch. The views were amazing and more than I expected. This was my first time in this area, I'm sure I will be back.
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Yakima Skyline Ridge. Photo by Darren.
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