The TH is 3.2 miles from the Yakima Canyon Road. The gravel road to the private homes is in good condition, but once you continue past the locked gate the road is rocky with many ruts. One could walk the road faster than driving it. The flowers along the road are past their prime except for one prickly pear cactus near the locked gate. It will be blooming soon. The parking lot is to the West just before the road makes a sharp right turn. We began walking north up the hill. One can walk a road, but more flowers are seen if you walk off-road up the hill. Most of the flowers before reaching the fence are past their prime. After crossing the fence we began to see bitterroot. There are hundreds of them and one has to be careful not to step on them. Some are blooming and there are many more yet to bloom. The buckwheat was fading. The only fresh flowers were 2 varieties of yellow bouquets which we haven't yet identified, a few phacelia, Thompson's paintbrush, a few death camas, and a few allium. We saw a few hedgehog cactus which had already bloomed. The only reason to hike this now is to see the hundreds of bitterroot!

The road from turnoff at the Canyon Road was in good conditions until after going through the residential area. It was just as rough as I remembered from our first visit three years earlier. Road conditions worsened after entering the gate, and I was driving under 5mph and navigating through protruding rocks. Tire grooves were in the road but it was uneven and hard to stay in them. After parking the car by the last bend (2800′) below the radio towers, the pups and I proceeded to scramble northerly. We more or less followed our previous track, but this time stayed far away from the canyon rim almost to the east slopes as the wind up top really gusty. We stopped at the viewpoint at 2600′ directly East of Roza Dam and spent the rest of our time there before returning to the car. Next time we might go even farther north and drop another 400′ to the viewpoint at 2200′ for a different perspective. Flickr: http://bit.ly/selah-butte-ii

Well, I found this trail on WTA android app, loaded up my wife and daughter for an early morning hike, followed the direction toward the trail. The road had multiple signs of " private road with BLM exception", so we continued all the way to the gate; which was locked with multiple locks. So we couldn't go on our hike; also, there wasn't a turn around and had to back out quite a distance. I think the local land owners are keeping us from using our public lands.

We didn't make it. Our idea was to car camp at the trail head. The TH is at a decent elevation so should have great views of the volcanoes, Yakima Canyon and Eastern Washington. The driving directions from the WTA's hiking guide are accurate. Our problem was the road condition. Once you leave the pavement the steep road has significant washboard for 1.6 miles. After passing through the gate the road only gets worse. I don't think 4WD is needed nor was high clearance. Regardless, the road threw us back and forth with such vigor that we gave up after half a mile:( We did see a dozen American White Pelicans on our way back down to the river. It was late in the day and they seemed to be be circling and searching for a place to put down for the night. Just like us.