Eastern Washington Expeditions
Umtanum Ridge Backroads Trip
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road
Report by Clay Graham. Photos by Clay & Doc Graham / CegPics.com
On Sunday May 30, 2021 we left Graham Family Farm with 4 Jeeps and a little Rav4. We convoyed to the toward end of pavement on the N Wenas Road. We turned off to run the Ridge Road which is part of the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route. We and aired down and headed up. We saw a rabbit and others saw a Rattle Snake as we went. At the top of the West end of Umtanum Ridge we stopped for a break. The views were great. You could see Cleman Mountain, Mount Rainier, the Stewart Mountain Range, the Manastash Ridge Observatory, Kittitas Valley, and more. There were a lot of wildflowers.
After a short time we headed on east across Umtanum Ridge. The hill climb above Black Canyon gave Corrie in the Rav4 a challenge she never had before. She seem to like it. That was good since we had some more of that type of fun coming back at the other end of the ridge later.
We got to the towers and took and break. The view there is cool since you can see Ellensburg on one side and Selah on the other. From there Baldy Mountain looks to be a long way away.
We moved on across Umtanum Ridge toward Baldy. It took us a little over an hour to reach the end of Green Dot across from Baldy Mountain. The view of the Yakima Canyon River along the way and at the end were great. You could see little dots of color of the people floating the river.
After the break we decided to head for home. We back tracked Umtanum Ridge going up some fun hill climbs. Along the way I spotted Mount Hood and had to stop for a photo. While I had the camera out I took a photo of Mount Adams too. At Durr Road we headed down toward Selah. At Sheep Company Road we parted ways.
This was a fun trip thanks to who all came.
Here are some photos of EWE Umtanum Ridge Backroads Trip:
