Yakima Skyline Trail — Friday, May. 5, 2000

Central Washington > Yakima

I had some trouble finding the road to the north trail head at first because my maps were a bit outdated. Anyway, now I know the Umtanum road to the trail head is the one to the left hand up immediately after the paved road ends. The rumored stone step at the creek turned out to be less trouble than the primitive road itself. I convinced my Chevy Cavaliar to the cross the creek but the loose rocks piled up at the center of the road kept grinding into the undercarriage of my car. So half mile up from the creek I gave up and started to hike. On our way up we were passed by two SUV's driven by their happy owners. Knowing we would have time to make an end-to-end hike along the Untanum ridge, we went up to the small hill with the microwave tower and later explored a bit along the ridge. There were still flowers going on everywhere. The snow capped Mt. Stuart could be seen in the distance. The shadows of the clouds form strange patterns on the ground below that looked like burn-marks. We didn't see any animals except a few birds of unknown species. Overall, it was a good trip. The view was definite different from the usual alpine scene this side of the Cascades. It is so open that you see everything every step of your hike.