Manastash Ridge - Observatory Road — Monday, Feb. 26, 2024

First off I want to say this is not a trail. This is a road walk where vehicles pass to the observatory and for other uses including active logging it seems. There’s few trees and many look marked to cut more in an already arid and sparsely shaded area. All that said in winter it was pretty. The road is either muddy and rocky (though shallow mud easily passable) or snow of maybe a few inches. No traction devices needed but it was clunky and slow a bit. I didn’t make it all the way for lack of time and a storm rolling in and only went half way ~2mi before turning back. I didn’t see any wildlife or people. The road was sloppy but easily passable in a small suv. The area is wide open scrubland punctuated by trees and with cloud cover I couldn’t see much beyond a few miles. From the looks of it the hike terminates on a crest where I assume the good views would be. Despite all my warning it was pretty and the terrain is quite flat so a nice winter walk in solitude with prettty snow covered arid landscape where the scrub steppe meets the foothills of the cascades.