Yakima Skyline Trail — Friday, Apr. 11, 2003

Central Washington > Yakima

Our party of 8 left a drizzly Seattle at 7 for east side of the mountains. I had done little hiking in sagebrush country and was looking forward to this one. The drive along the dirt road is a nice one with views of expansive, rolling grass and sages slopes cut by small canyons. When we arrived at the trailhead we were the only car there which suprised me as I thought this trail would be a really popular spring hike. We set out in the chill of the morning along the trail which is actually more of a road, a nice road to hike though as it follows the ridge in a serpentine pattern, at times rising to meet the sky. A few small flowers were in bloom, and the sage smelled great. We could hear birds singing off the trail in the nearby sage, but when me and another person went to search for one, the sound always seemed to get another twenty feet farther away and then after awhile we heard it behind us. Those birds are good at keeping hidden. Although it is a 19 mile loop hike, we only hiked maybe 4 miles in. On the way back, the clouds parted slightly and the sun shown like a red rubber ball. When we returned to the parking area, there were several other cars there. We drove down the road and stopped at the creek crossing. We decided to hike down the creek a ways just to explore. A few yahoos were shooting guns across the canyon from on the hill above us, but we survived. We didn't see alot in the canyon except for some interesting birds with colorful markings that I had never seen before. On the way back out we met a man from the fish and wildlife department that was doing a bird count. He said that they now put transmitters on birds and track them by satellite. Evidently when he drove past the yahoos, he gave them the evil eye and they quite shooting. On the way out we met some some people from France and Belgium that had parked their cars even farther back up the road and done the whole loop hike and explored the creek. They were a nice bunch of people and we gave them a ride back to their car. The drive back to Seattle was quite scenic with views to the snow covered Stuart Range and separate beams of the sun streaming through the clouds.