Ray Westberg Trail-Manastash Ridge

This is an excellent springtime hike, near Ellensburg, easy to access and about 1.5 hours from Seattle. The trail is fairly steep but pretty short (2.5-3 miles each way to the viewpoint), though you can certainly wander farther in the open terrain or along the ridgetop road. Right now the hills are green, the flowers are peaking, the sun is not too hot, there's no bugs and few bees and the Stuart Range, in the distance, is still snow covered (making for a prettier vista). Here is a link to the P-I ""Take a Hike"" column, which has directions and a trail description: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/168084_hike08.html