Pleasant Valley Snowshoe — Saturday, Dec. 30, 2017

School starts on Tuesday (I get no sympathy after two weeks of vacation), so I wanted to snowshoe one more time before my life filled once again with 7th graders. My original plan was to drive up to the Chinook Pass gate at Morse Creek, and just snowshoe up Highway 410, but I decided to stop at Pleasant Valley instead (I'm glad I did).

THE ROADS: Leaving Yakima was hairy - the roads were still icy, and I almost turned around. But Highway 12 was bare and wet, so I continued. Snow and slush started appearing a few miles before Whistlin' Jacks. The road past Bumping Lake had been plowed, but there was still 3-4 inches of fresh snow, and no tracks to follow. But I continued on, eventually arriving at the trailhead. The roads going back were fine - the sun had melted most of the snow and ice.

THE TRAILHEAD: There is a wide plowed parking area on the south side of the road, across from the Hells Crossing campground. You can access the trail there, or you can cross the street and access the other part of the loop (see the link below). I stayed on the south side the whole time, hiking west parallel to the road.

THE NUMBERS: I left Yakima at 6:45am, arrived at the trailhead at 8:30am, returned to the car at 11:30am. The trail goes for at least 10 miles one way, but I only went 4.6 miles RT.

THE TRAIL: A nice trail broken through the foerst for skis or snowshoes. Gentle ups and downs along the river. It was fun to wind through trees, cross a few small streams, and come upon amazing views across the river. Lots of places to stop and take pictures, especially when the sun started pushing through the trees. You can get away with just boots for the first mile, but eventually the snow deepened, and I was glad to have snowshoes, gaiters, and poles. After 2 miles, I had to break trail. This was tiring. It was around 30 degrees the whole time, I wore my long sleeve shirt, fleece, and warm hat most of the time. 

THE SOUNDS: Peace and quiet most of the way - just the sound of the river to keep me company. A mile in, I passed a family who had camped by the trail for the night - I think they faced freezing rain all night in their tents, poor souls! I passed a few other people on the way back. Every so often, I also heard loud booms and roars, I think from avalanches further up the pass. This made me glad I stopped at Pleasant Valley, instead of hiking the highway.

Here's a link to a great PDF map of the Pleasant Valley trail system:

https://www.parks.state.wa.us/465/Greenwater-Yakima