We drove out to Yakima to hike the Cowiche Canyon and Uplands Trails. We did 8 miles with an overall elevation gain of 785 ft. We parked at the West Trailhead and hiked up Lone Pine Trail to the South Rim Trail and down the East Uplands Trail to the Canyon Trail.
When we arrived it was 29 degrees F and most of the canyon was in the shade.
So we hiked up the Lone Pine Trail to warm up and get into the sunshine.
Occasionally, we would have views down into the canyon. Most of the trail was up in the shrub steppe area with the canyon hidden from view. The trail was very winding.
View down towards the east end of the canyon.
View from the same spot looking west up the canyon.
We found some rocks to sit on near the trail to enjoy this canyon view and took a lunch break.
We decided to hike a ways towards the east trailhead, before retuning to the west end through the canyon. Looking up at the basalt columns.
We hiked down to the aspen grove before turning back to hike up the canyon.
colorful trees reflecting in Cowiche Creek at one of the bridge crossings
ponderosa pine trees
most of the color was along Cowiche Creek
looking up to the Uplands on the south side, which we hiked across earlier.
We enjoyed this leisurely 3 mile section along the canyon floor.
There were many interesting rock formations.
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