My friend and I did a thru-hike of the canyon for her first overnight trip. We started at Umtanum rec area at noon after dropping off a car at the Yakima Skyline trailhead. Vista Trail was fairly busy as we were climbing up but not annoyingly so. The top of the climb is brutally steep but over fairly quickly. It was as we were climbing this section that we started to encounter the 50k race runners on their way to the finish line. There was an aid station at the intersection of Vista Trail and Durr Road and from here until we got to Roza Creek we passed many runners at various levels of enthusiasm.

We camped north of Roza Creek just off the trail. The creek is dry so we trekked over to the Yakima to get our water. We had the chance to see several small herds of deer join together to create a larger herd while grazing the hill to the north of us. Around 9pm long after we had settled in for bed, someone started buzzing our tent with a drone. They spent several minutes trying to get our attention, left and came back to try again. Maybe it was someone just being silly but it creeped us out. They finally left us alone and we were able to relax and go to sleep. It lightly rained off and on throughout the night.

We woke early and continued our trek south. It was sunny and calm at first but then it clouded over and the wind picked up. We started encountering other hikers again as we neared the Skyline Trail. We arrived back at our car about 11:30am.

Road: rough but passable for anyone going to the Skyline trailhead. Road to Umtanum is suitable for any vehicle.

Trailhead: Discover pass required at the Skyline TH. The gate was open but we still parked at the gate since I wasn't sure if it was going to stay open. There was an outhouse available at the parking area inside the gate. $5 day pass required at Umtanum rec area. The pit toilets there are open and stocked with TP.

Trail: some muddy spots on the Vista trail but otherwise good, albeit rocky conditions.

Flora & fauna: lots of deer near Roza Creek, heard coyotes howling overnight, lots of birds throughout. No bighorn sheep sightings. Wildflowers starting to bloom throughout with the most in bloom on the Skyline side of the trail.

Bugs: there were some mosquitoes out already. I was not using repellent and got a few bites on my legs.

Specs from Gaia: 15.2mi, 7hr 51min total moving time, 4065ft

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Wanted to find an overnight where it wouldn't rain much, which on those dates left us searching around Yakima. I'd been wanting to check out the Wenas Wildlife Area for a while anyway since it's an Important Bird Area and iirc the Audubon Society has done camping trips there in years past. 

Route: The route we took doesn't quite line up with any existing listing I could find; we drove up Durr Road until it went from just an uneven unpaved road to something more for ATVs, then followed the road until we hit Roza Creek, then followed that trail down to the Yakima River, reaching it just south of the Big Pines Campground: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=12.3/-120.5438/46.7815&pubLink=ZPFw2oGlbSwpFaPTNNaXQqZr&trackId=1579a3be-1154-4f32-af92-0f4213ff48af

Water access: Since we wanted an overnight, water access was a concern. We couldn't find water in Roza Creek until some distance down, and what we found was stagnant - there were four frogs in one pool! Unless you are dying of dehydration here, do not drink the frog water. Right by Birdsong Tree, about 4 miles from our starting point, there's some nice flowing water just uphill (on the left as you're heading outward on the trail) maybe a hundred yards. There were a couple more spots where we heard flowing water, but we elected to head down to the Yakima River, which is convenient to access from there - nice to stop and dangle our dusty feet into.

Birds & wildlife: Birdsong tree lives up to its name! Saw at least 6 western tanagers, plus numerous redwing blackbirds and a variety of other species I didn't know. There are birds all along the creek, but Birdsong Tree is a particularly good spot. Down by the Yakima River, there were some, including some kind of swift or swallow eating bugs, and then when it was getting dark, the bats came out to take over.  There were clouds of gnats, but they weren't persistent. Some mosquitoes but not too many. We saw a number of bones along the trail, including a nearly-complete skeleton, which we figured must be deer, though probably young ones, unless the deer out here are smaller. Heard coyotes in the distance once, plus scat along the trail, but no other sign of them. Saw four snakes, but none of them rattlers. Oh, and of course the four frogs :)

Flowers: Lots of flowers! I wish I were better at identifying these, but there was a good density of them, in excellent variety, in a full rainbow of colors, at least on the earlier parts of the trail. Further down there weren't as many, but the cottonwoods along the creek made for nice scenery. The edge of the Yakima River was lined with yellow irises.

Camp site: This was kind of a weird place to camp, since we were just across the Yakima River from a fairly busy road, and on our other side from the river was an active train track - I think about 4 trains passed while we were there from late afternoon Wednesday to late morning Thursday. There were even a handful of boats that went past us on the river (fishing or kayaking). Particularly odd since the only other soul we saw on our side of the river was one DNR employee driving back from some weed management. As to the campsite itself, we found a nice flat open area with room for two tents a couple hundred yards north of where the trail would continue on the river side of the railroad tracks only a stone's throw from the river. It would have been possible to camp at Birdsong Tree as well, and either location had plenty of trees to hammock from.

On the whole, this is a good area, and I'd be happy to come back to it, including for longer trips.

Went for a mini 'thru hike' this weekend between Ellensburg and Yakima starting from the Manastash trailhead and ending at the Yakima Skyline trailhead. We used CalTopo to map out a roughly 31-mile route that included as much trail-time as possible, but also used a few dirt roads to make it work.

Starting from the Boy Scout Trail, the trail here is in great condition and has a decent amount of tree cover to keep the blazing sun off of you. The elevation gain is pretty rapid here, but after you make it the top, you'll have a few miles of fairly mellow trail. We followed something called the 'Gun Smoke' trail from here and connected up with the dirt road to Umtanum Falls.

Umtanum Falls was by far the busiest section of trail we visited. When we hiked down to the parking lot around 11 it was nearly full and bustling. We headed down to the falls to check it out and filter some extra water, then backtracked a bit to connect with the next section of trail. Trail signage from this point on was fairly minimal, so I can't say for sure what the actual name of the this next bit of trail is.

We followed this route up until our campsite at Oasis Springs just over 13 miles in from our starting point. We had hoped to find some water here (given the name), but had no such luck. We did get to enjoy a massive hail storm, though. We set up tents in a nice tree-filled spot and called it a night pretty early.

The next day, we got an early start to beat the heat and followed Umtanum Ridge east for quite a bit until making a ridiculously steep descent down an old gravel road towards Roza Creek. We had hoped to find water in Roza Creek, but unfortunately it had already dried out for the season. With that option out the window, the only water source left was straight from the Yakima River. We stocked up on water down by the train tracks and enjoyed some shade while we ate our lunch.

From here, we headed up something signed as "Horse Trail" which I believe is also the Upper Yakima Skyline Trail? It's a steep and super exposed ascent which was not great in the midday heat. But it was also incredibly windy, which helped to cool us down (and also made me feel like I blow right off the edge of the canyon). This area had the best views of the entire trip -- you're hiking almost directly above the Yakima River with Mount Baldy looming just to your east.

After a bit of ridgeline hiking, the Horse Trail joins up with the classic Yakima Skyline Trail and it's all downhill from there until the trailhead. From our campsite, it was about 17 miles to the trailhead.

I needed a quick one-night trip that was snow-free; thankfully the June temps were a little below average so a 'late season' hike in the desert worked out perfectly. From Ellensburg, I took the Durr Road goat track to the North Yakima Skyline Trailhead (and a wee bit further out the green-dot road that follows the ridge top). If you don't have a high clearance rig, don't risk your undercarriage on this road; you can meet this adventure along the way by taking the Umtanum Ridge trail. 

Outstanding views from the ridge-top trail of Rainier, Adams, Hood, Goat Rocks, Stuarts, and rolling desert hills give your neck a work out taking it all in; just be careful on the loose rocky path not to lose your footing. I followed the ridge all the way down to Roza Creek, sticking to the old jeep track and turned left up the Roza Creek drainage to Birdsong Tree. I arrived to find the oasis all mine to enjoy and a quick exploration turned out two coyote pups, 40+ elk, three deer, and innumerable small birds and critters; what a thrill! With all that wildlife mucking around in the spring, I elected to get water directly from Roza Creek (still a steady flow on June 30). Access was also easier as the spring and outflow are densely overgrown with defensively minded plants and plenty of ticks.

After a peaceful night and a leisurely morning, I broke camp and went uptrail a very short distance (1/2 mile or less) and followed a barely visible jeep track up the ridge all the way back to the North Skyline Trail. I happened to see the jeep track on google earth and it was a good compromise between bushwhacking and established trail. Overall, the trip was just what the doctor ordered and I'm keen to go back a bit earlier in the season for spring foliage. Regardless, if the temps are at/below 75ish, you won't regret checking this area out.

For those purists out there, stop reading... for the rest of you, there is Verizon 4G service nearly the entire time, including at Birdsong Tree. Since I was on a rare solo-trip, it was nice to have signal to check in with loved-ones. 

I led my 3rd Sagebrush Ramble of the season for the Cascadians to the north trailhead of the Yakima Skyline Rim Trail on this mostly cloudy, breezy day.  We drove out the Durr Rd from the Wenas Valley.  The road was not bad at first, but deteriorated beyond the junction with the Roza Creek Rd.  From here on it was often very rocky, especially the climb up to the top of Umtanum Ridge.  We walked out the old 2-track that doubles as the Skyline Rim Trail to the earthquake monitoring station on Pt 3630, then on to Pt 3462, which is about 1/4 mile east of the junction of the Skyline Trail with the Umtanum Ridge Crest Trail coming up from the mouth of Umtanum Canyon.  We didn't linger at lunch as long as usual because I was concerned that, with all the sharp rocks in the road, I might have a flat tire or two when we returned and wanted to be sure I had enough time to deal with it if I did.  We returned the way we came and arrived back at my truck about 2:00 to fully inflated tires.  Whew!  I decided to continue north on the Durr Rd to the Ellensburg-Wenas Rd as this was shorter than coming from the Wenas.  This portion of the road was also extremely rocky, especially the 1/4 mile where the road climbs south out of Umtanum Canyon towards Umtanum Ridge.  I was pleasantly surprised, however, that the ford of Umtanum Creek has been replaced by a nice concrete bridge.  It took us an hour to drive the 7.5 miles from the trailhead to the Ellensburg-Wenas Rd.  The balsamroot was mostly past, but the lithosol flowers were very nice:  bitterroot, Gairdner's penstemon, desert buckwheat, linear-leaf daisy, etc.  The few hedgehog cactus we saw were not yet in bloom.  We saw deer and a number of other hikers who had come up from Umtanum Canyon.  I would not try this road in a sedan, but any vehicle with a little higher clearance will do fine.  Just be sure you have good tires and drive slow, as the biggest problem is lots of sharp rocks.