Cowiche Canyon

The Cowiche Canyon Conservancy is a series of 4 trails along an abandoned railroad corridor. There is the canyon trail itself, a 6 mile round trip hike of the old RR right-of-way, a hill climb for views of Cowiche Mountain and the sagebrush plain before it, a jaunt to a winery(?) and a hike to the top of Cowiche Mountain.
Today we did the canyon trail and the winery detour.
Cowiche Creek has a pretty good flow and so the vegitation in the valley is lush, at least compared to the sage/steppe country around it. As you'll notice driving around the orchards and vineyards of the Yakima are, if you water something in this warm valley it will grow well. And with the plants come animals. We saw a gopher snake (but not until about 4 feet away), red tail hawks and a legion of violet-green swallows.
The first 3 of 11 bridge crossings of Cowiche Creek are gone, thanks to one of the neighbors who tried to stop the trail with a little pre-emptive strike by having them removed, but despite that the trail opened with detours to keep your boots dry. Be sure to be pleasant and unobtrusive to the folks who live here, respecting their property and privacy. Be sure to look for the giant stone head too, you'll know it when you see it.
The trip to the winery is worthwhile too. The 1 mile round trip, 400' Elevation gain yeilds some nice views of the canyon and Cowiche Mountain, as as advertised delivers you at a winery and tasting room (open Sundays!) where for $5 you can sample the local wares, all of which are for sale on site
This canyon is great for a short stroll or an all day adventure, because you can hike up to 14 milkes of trail here.

Umtanum Canyon

Umtanum Canyon is one of my favorite spring hikes. When six months of overcast, drizzle and 30 to 50 degree temperatures are starting to wear on you, just motorvate over the hill to central Washington and reacquaint yourself with dust. Spring is also the best time to see wildflowers in bloom here.
Umtanum Canyon is just a few miles south of Ellensberg on the Yakima Canyon road. The canyon itself is on BLM property, but just outside the canyon is the L.T. Murray Wildlife Recreation Area (where the deer and antelope play? Not exactly, the WRA's used to be called "game reserves" in times of less delicate sensibilities) and wildlife viewing opportunities abound. We saw elk (just outside of Roslyn) and big horn sheep (in the Yakima River Canyon about 4 miles from Umtanum), as well as quail, thrushes, pelicans (in the Yakima River) and swallows.
The trailhead parking lot is often pretty full, as it is popular with people fishing or rafting, so best to arrive early or on a weekday. The trail begins with a nice suspension bridge that sways when you walk on it, then a short trail under the Railroad tracks and you're in Umtanum canyon. Follow the creek for the next 3 1/4 miles (where the trail ends in a closure to protect wildlife between Feb. 1st and July 15th), or when open proceed another couple miles to Umtanum Falls, a trail which can be accessed separately from another trailhead off of Wenas Road.
Along the way you can see wild apple trees, descended from a small orchard that was part of a homestead here in the 1880's but have gone untended for decades. You'll find the only cactus I know of that grow naturally in this state, and lots of wildflowers like larkspur, balsamroot, lupine and desert parsley. There are also the less colorful but equally beautiful sagebrush, rabbitbrush and bunchgrass, and a large, lovely grove of quaking aspen.
There is a creek crossing involved, but the creek is narrow and shallow and there are usually logs to walk across. The beavers along the creek have been , well, busy as beavers, and we saw at least a dozen dams at various points along the way. There are also snakes to be aware of, both rattlesnakes and gopher snakes, the latter not poisonous but with fangs that still hurt and oh yes, gopher snakes can climb and are occasionally spotted hanging from a tree branch. Remember to look down and up. Speaking of up, the more ambitious will want to explore the trail that leads to your left just after crossing the RR tracks at the beginning of the trail, which in about 1 mile (600' elev. gain) leads to a nice overlook of the Yakima River and its canyon.
Be sure to save time for a drive down the Yakima canyon. There are some beautiful sights (such as the aforementioned big horn sheep & pelicans) between here and Selah, and some turnouts to stop and admire the view.

Wallace Falls State Park

This is a true gem of a park. It can be hiked in all four seasons. It offers hikes for all ages and abilities, from short, level strolls along the river to long, switchback filled trails leading to mountain lakes. It's a short drive from the teaming hordes of Pugetopolis, but can offer solitude for those willing to go the extra mile. It is even accessible by Community Transit bus (Route 270 and 271).
We did a 13 mile loop trip along the Wallace River to the lower, middle and upper falls, then up to the ridge line below Mount Stickney to Wallace Lake and Jay Lake, returning down the North Fork Wallace River via the Greg Ball trail.
The beauty of Wallace Falls state Park is that there is no one set itinerary. Feel free to mix and match to suit your abilities and needs. The DNR roads make for great winter snowshoe access to Wallace Lake. For summer time fishing, head to the lake via the Greg Ball trail. For solitude, explore Jay Lake or even bushwhack your way to Shaw Lake. The only constraints are time (sorry, day hikes only) and your imagination.
I can't say enough about the infrastructure here. The trails are full of benches, bridges and stairs. The staff does a great job of keeping the trails free of blowdowns and making sure the trail is in good repair year round. If you see a trail crew, be sure to say thanks. Many are volunteers working for the Washington Trails Association; along with your thanks, donations of money and/or labor are gladly accepted. There are even a couple nice segments built by kids as Eagle Scout projects.
Wallace Falls also needs people to watch over it to keep it safe from the budget axe. The fate of the park is currently in question, with some short sighted and cowardly legislators plotting to close Wallace Falls to save $181,000 in annual operating costs, or a savings of about 32 cents for each Snohomish County resident. Mothballing the park would allow the trails to deteriorate, encourage vandalism and make it that much harder for families to get kids out into the woods. Surely keeping this park open is worth the price of 1/6th of a cup of coffee per capita per year. If you're reading this and the legislature's still in session, write, email, call and howl until Wallace Falls State Park is off the chopping block!

Blanchard Mountain

Blanchard Mountain is the only mountain in the Cascade range that actually touches salt water, rising over 2000' from Samish Bay on Puget Sound. Located in Northwest Washington along Chuckanut drive, Blanchard contains several hikes that can be done seperately or as part of a loop trail. Today we did the Oyster Dome/Lily Lake/Samish Overlook loop, in my humble opinion the best way to see the mountain.
We started on the west side at the Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) trailhead. The trail begins an immediate and relentless march up for the next mile and a half. At 1000' elevation there's a small bench and your first clear view out over the San Juan Islands. This is a good place to have a drink of water (you should have worked up a good sweat by now) and a handful of trail mix, but don't get too complacent, you're only half way to the Dome. Keep going up (and up and up...) until you see the sign for the Talus Trail. Follow this short detour to the Bat Caves, which aren't caves at all but large boulders that create a talus slope at the base of the Dome's 400' cliff. Take a moment to admire the view; you'll be looking down from there in a few minutes. Try to stay out of the caves, to protect the bats from you and protect you from the boulders, which are unstable and dangerous.
Go back to the main trail and head up the main trail to Oyster Dome. You'll eventually emerge on to a gently sloping rock dome with stunning views of the San Juan's and the Olympic Mountains, as well as the Samish and Skagit delta's. Don't expect solitude here. This is a very popular hike, and on the first sunny, warm Sunday of spring we shared our lunch break with 40 to 50 others.
Solitude isn't impossible to find here, however. We left the Dome by way of the Lily Lake trail. We passed two people and saw the bootprints of 4 or 5 more, but by the time we got to Lily Lake just a mile from the crowded Dome, we were completely alone at a pretty, frozen, snowy mountain lake, where we took an uninterupted 45 minute pause. There are some nice campsites here, and also another mile away at Lizard Lake, a smaller, less visited spot that's just far enough off the main track to make it peaceful and, after sunset, probably a private campsite.
From Lily Lake, we headed for Samish Overlook via the PNT (the trail we started on and at the end of which our truck - we hope - is waitnig to take us home). Samish Overlook is accessible by car, and is a popular launching spot for hang gliders and parasailers...or is it parasailors? In any case, you can see folks lined up to take the plunge, and may even see eagles joining in the fun, looking for the same thermals as their nylon winged counterpats. This was a fun place to people watch too. We match a woman dressed for a cocktail lounge but snapping photos of raptors, a man in a bizzare 1980's sedan fitted with strange multple antennae trying to talking to hamm radio operators from Sverdlovsk to Auckland, a very Federico Fellini/Northern Exposure assortment. This is another nice place to take a break and take it all in.
From here the walk back was an easy 2 mile down hill stroll. The whole loop was about 9 miles, with almost all of the elevation on the first 1/3 up to the Oyster Dome. We hiked the whole thing between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm, although the trail could easily be done in 4 hours by the ambitious and impatient. But at a beautiful hike like this who wants to hurry?