Horse Heaven Hills — Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019

Nice hike near Benton City.  The trailhead parking is just above the Analere winery on McBee road.  We hiked on a foggy Sunday just past 9a and there were 6 cars in the parking lot.  When we came back to parking lot about 1 1/2 hours later there were 8 cars which is almost the capacity of the small lot.  There were several options for trails from the trailhead and all head more or less to the top of the butte.  If you go on the trail to the left which follows the old road bed it is about 6 miles out and back.  We opted to veer to the right and go straight up the trail adjacent to the gully and then follow the old road bed back down for just over 4 total miles.  The climb up was just over 1000 ft elevation gain in about a mile and the trip down was a gentle decent.  We hiked with a dog and there were several other groups with dogs as well.  The trial is a silt/loess and not rocky so its easy on the paws.  We heard there was a view at the top but we were in a foggy cloud bank and couldn't verify that, but it is a trail we plan to do again.