Durr Wagon Trail/Umtanum Ridge Adventure
Report by Clay Graham
Photos by Clay Graham & Cody Davis
On Tuesday April 26th, 2011 we met up at McDonald’s in Ellensburg Washington for a Durr Road backroads run at the Wenas Wildlife Area. Durr road was built in the 1880s as a short cut for wagons to travel from Ellensburg to Selah since the Wenas pass was much longer. It took us four hours to complete the run to the end at Sheep Company Road North of Selah. We stopped a few times for views and ran the East end of the Umtanum Ridge and back to over look the Yakima River Canyon.
Here are some pictures of our day:
Odo was my Co-pilot. Here we are waiting for the others at McDonald’s in Ellensburg.
Airing down at the North end of Durr Road.
Heading across the pass.
Durr road crosses Umtanum Ridge near the towers. We have aways to go.
Some wild flowers are starting to come out.
Coming up on the Umtanum Canyon.
We stopped for a break at Umtanum Creek.
Heading on.
Looking back across for where we came from.
At the top of Umtanum Ridge.
Heading East on Umtanum Ridge Road.
A stop to look toward Selah.
You can see into Yakima from up there.
Looking back at the Towers.
Around the corner looking at the Kittitas Area.
Looking at Baldy Mountain and the Yakima River Canyon.
More flowers.
Tourist. LOL
Cody & Foxracer.
Foxracer & Ceg.
Photo Cody Davis
Looking toward the Selah end of the Yakima River Canyon.
Back up the road going toward Durr Road and the towers.
Looking toward the Ellensburg end of the Yakima River Canyon.
You can see I-82.
Getting closer to Durr Road.
We crossed Durr Road and went up to the towers for the view.
Looking at Kittitas County.
It was getting late so we drove back to Durr Road and took it down to Sheep Company Road where we aired up.
This was a fun trip thanks to who came.
