Durr Road and North Yakima Skyline, Umtanum Ridge Crest — Saturday, May. 19, 2018

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  I was pleasantly surprised, however, that the ford of Umtanum Creek has been replaced by a nice concrete bridge.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.