Black Canyon
Apr 29, 2001
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Black Canyon
- Region: Eastern Washington -- Yakima
- Agency: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
- Avg Rating: 4.40
The road accessing this trail is roughly across the Wenas Highway from Hardy Canyon. Both of these trails have signs on the road, but you do have to be looking carefully for them. You can drive up the somewhat dubious looking dirt road (off Wenas Highway) for perhaps a mile. You will see an elk gate which with some grunting can be opened, then closed after you pass through. Ahead, you will see one large lonesome tree -- just a few hundred feet after the tree there is a widening in the road and you can park there. There is a trail/road intersecting the dirt road which goes along the base of the hills, so it didn't look very interesting. We walked on the main road straight ahead. (Resist the temptation to drive further--the road quickly deteriorates and there really isn't space to park after this.) The trail enters into the canyon, and goes up steadily, although it is not real steep since it was a former road. When we were there in late April, the wildflowers were great, and the creek was flowing. We eventually reached a junction in a basin (still in the canyon) with the trail forking left and right. We took the right fork and climbed for what seemed a long time. We finally hit the top of the ridge and got great views (and lots of wind!) This is a major trail intersection; we took the fork to the left which goes along the spine of the ridge. This trail winds back down to the junction in the basin. Since it was steeper coming down, I think we did this loop in the easiest direction. Total loop was about 6 miles.
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