This was my first trip to the Yakima area. We decided to spend the weekend in Yakima and do some hikes we had heard about. This one, The Yakima Skyline Trail was soooo neat! We are somewhat new to hiking and have been enjoying all our hikes in the forests of the Cascades but this was totally different. At first glance of the trailhead I thought, ""I guess we will be hiking on a dirt hillside"". BUT once we begun it was such a surprise!!!! Wildflowers galore, and the most gorgeous bird songs echoing from the brush. The views were superb and the shadows playing off the hillsides, puffy white clouds, 70 degree temp. What a day!!!! Could see the snowy peaks of the Cascades too. We didn't make it all the way, after reading our noted when we got back to the car we realized we hiked to a ""false summit"". Well false or not it still had a wonderful view. Oh yes the smell of the sage? was heavenly. Trail was in fine shape.

The south trail head is open....the trail is easy to follow. At this time of year, hikers must deal with heat...take extra water. After surviving the climb to the ridge, we enjoyed the ridge walk. Wild flowers are still in abundance. but beware. Twin springs is barely dribbling and Roza Creek is barely usable as a water source.

We decided to try Harvey Manning's suggested 19 mile loop (from 100 Hikes in Washington), which combines the high terrain and views of Umtanum Ridge with extended hiking along Jacob Durr Road and down the Roza Creek valley. From the North Trailhead, we headed south down the Durr Road for several miles, then east along the Roza Creek road. We camped among the cottonwoods along Roza Creek. There's lots of water there, with beaver ponds further downstream. The second day, we hiked up Umtanum Ridge (fairly steep climb, but not too bad) and back to the trailhead. The whole trail has fabulous wildflowers; the varied habitats make the loop hike even more interesting. It's an excellent birding trip as well, with many colorful birds, especially in the Roza Creek area. We saw other hikers only once, but rattlers twice. Great spring hike.

Since I've been homebound waiting for the birth of Dslayer Jr.-about the only outings I've been on are the Skyline Trail--but I've been going about every day for a week or more. You can reach either of the two Southern trailheads by taking Wenas Road out of Selah for about 5 miles, continuing north on Gibson Road when Wenas goes west, then taking a right onto Buffalo Road. You'll take a 90 degree right and one of the entrances onto L.T. Murray is right there. That road, it's green dotted, will take you take about 1.5 miles to a trailhead that'll take you about a mile or so to the top of the Ridge and intersect the Skyline. If you want more of the Trail and more of a workout--continue past the L.T. Murray entrance and head on down the road, following it another two miles or so to the clearly marked Skyline Trail T-head. Anyway, I like cutting up through the canyon off the road that I mentioned because it gets to the top a little quicker and then I can go either way along the rim from there. I really like desert country, I cut my outdoor eyeteeth on many hiking/fishing/hunting trips into the L.T. Murray and I'm a little miffed at myself for not having much use of the area since I've moved back within site of it 5 years ago-I live only 3 miles from the trialhead I mentioned. This is a beautiful 'live' desert country, and since they've closed roads and limited hunting with permit only hunting for deer and the 3 pt. restrictions for elk--there's a lot of big game out there-particularly deer-I've seen two big bucks (they're together) every time I've been up there, plus numerous smaller bucks and doe. Lots of birds as well. When you cut the Skyline Trail and head N, almost immediately you'll see an old road-no longer used-I like it better than the Trail which mostly hangs on the Yakima River side because I like checking the country back to the west. That old road will eventually intersect and become the Skyline Trail after you've gone about the 'nose' of S. Umptanum ridge-overlooking the River and are on the Payatoo Canyon (this is the colloquial name-it goes by something else on DNR maps) the side of the ridge. If you go to the top of the ridge, rather than follow the trail, you can see Rainier, Adams, the tip of Hood, Goat Rocks, Mt. Curtis Gilbert, Coal Creek Mtns, Fife's Peak, Mt. Stuart. The north facing slope is covering with grass-still very green-lots of flowers, too, for the flower lovers which I'm not, but I sure like the colors and their tenacity to live and bloom in such a dry clime. Once you go around the ridge and into the Payatoo-you're in about as much of a wilderness as you can find anywhere-the road into the bottom is closed. The Trail crosses the bottom then heads up North Umptanum ridge. This place is cool-take water, there's springs along the way but nothing that you'd want to drink. Watch for snakes near springs--I killed a big rattler the other day and the Umptanum area is famous for it's numbers of snakes--I've heard that along the Umptanum canyon has either the highest or second highest density of rattlers in the world-though I'd hate to have to remember where I came up with that stat. But I do know from 'back in the day' when I was young and stupid and actually would catch rattlers barehanded that there's a lot of them out there.

Camping on the Victoria Day long weekend is a tradition in Canada. Even those people who only camp twice a year pick this weekend to visit the woods. In BC where the government feels that no highway needs more two lanes this means escaping the city is an adventure in itself. We chose to take our chances at the border and looked for some place in the great state of Washing to pitch our tent. We monitored www.weather.com by the hour looking for a little sunshine. As of Friday afternoon showers were predicted for the mountains. We eventually chose the Yakima Rim Skylinetrail as it was going to be sunny there and it offered views of the big volcanoes if this cleared up. The border took an hour to cross but we were in Seattle in less than two hours. We stopped briefly at Snoqualmie Falls where it was drizzling (as predicted). Once we crossed the Snoqualmie Pass and arrived in Ellensburg the sun came out however another weather related phenomena caught us by surprise - gale force winds. Our pleasant little camping trip wasn’t looking too good. We reached the elk fence and drove for two miles along a rough dirt road barely manageable by our twelve year old Corolla. A the parking area there were shot gun shells all over the ground and a small A-framed steel structure riddled with bullet holes. We never saw a single animal on the entire trip, just birds & insects. The trail up to the rim was nice; there is still an abundant amount of flowers although they seem to be just past their peak. Once we reached the rim the views were remarkable although somewhat tarnished by the dam and the highway. The wind at the rim was tremendous and deathly cold, perhaps not as bad as Camp Muir but they had a certain Katabatic quality about them. There looked as if there would be no place you could pitch a tent until we came across a sheltered ledge at Twin Springs Camp and happily dropped our packs. We hiked onward to the summit of peak #3208. Unfortunately clouds obscured all the big volcanoes. On the way back we took a few pictures of the unique lichen covered hoodoos that stood out from the sides on the canyon. We only saw a few other people, one guy had the right idea, he brought along a kite. The next morning we packed up and headed back to the car. As we crested the ridge we saw Mt. Adams as clear as can be silhouetted against a perfectly blue sky. Karen slowly turned to her right and was struck with an epiphany. When this happens, there is nothing that can stop her. To be continued…