Trip Report: Scouting the Whiskey Dick Road Management Area – 05.16.2008
Who would have thought that a Friday trip to the Whiskey Dick Road Management Area near Ellensburg, Washington would bring out more participants than most weekend trips.
Well Jerry (aka SoggyMountain) picked a wonderful day for a Backroad Drivers Northwest tour of the Whiskey Dick. Hands down, this was the warmest day of 2008 to date.
The meeting place that morning was the Bar 14 restaurant in Ellensburg. In attendance for the days trip was of course Jerry from Yakima driving his full size Jeep SJ Wagoneer; (and if I get the names wrong, please forgive and let me know to correct them) Phil and his son Travis from Newcastle, driving the white Ford Explorer; Paul from Tacoma driving the other Ford Explorer; Jim (stucky) driving the white Chevy Pickup (I forgot to ask where Jim was from); Trish and Tammy from Bothel driving a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon; John and Cindy from Monroe driving a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon; Sid from Renton driving his Jeep Wrangler, Peter and Don (I forgot to ask where they were from or if I did, I didn’t write it down) driving the Sportsmobile van; myself in my 80-series Toyota Land Cruiser; and Bill from Ellensburg who joined us for breakfast but had to supervise a fencing property today so he couldn’t join us.
Categories: Adventures Tags: 60-series, 80-series, Backroad Drivers Northwest, backroads, bohinkleman spring, bryant creek, caribou road, cayuse, chevy, colockum, colockum road, darrell f jones, desert, elk, ellensburg, fj60, fj80, ford explorer, gps, grave, gravesite, hedgehog cactus, jeep, jk, land cruiser, landcruiser, little bohinkleman creek, little brushy creek, memorial, northwest, outdoors, pacific northwest, quilomene, quilomene ridge, rollinger creek, rubicon, shrub-steppe, skookumchuck, skookumchuck ridge, sportsmobile, tj, toyota, trip, vantage highway, wagoneer, washington, whiskey dick, wild horse wind farm, wrangler
OlympiaFJ60.net – Driving the Blue Highways – Yakima to Vantage to Ellensburg
Brandon over on OlympiaFJ60.net has a piece on driving what he calls “Blue Highways” (the secondary highways on the maps), and specifically a loop he recently completed beginning and ending in Yakima and taking him along the Columbia River to Vantage, Ellensburg, and through the Yakima River canyon.
Read the entire trip report at Driving the Blue Highways – Yakima to Vantage to Ellensburg.
Enjoy.
Categories: On The Web Tags: backroads, columbia river, ellensburg, highways, vantage, yakima, yakima river
Quilomene Wildlife Area Overland Tour 07.22.07
After a nice peaceful night in a hotel in Ellensburg, Washington, we loaded up the Land Cruiser and headed out for a day trip to the Quilomene Wildlife Area.
Categories: Adventures Tags: backroads, brewton road, campsite, caribou road, colockum, columbia river, crescent bar, dry gulch, ellensburg, expedition, fj80, gps, green dot roads, land cruiser, landcruiser, little brushy creek, northwest, overland, perkins road, quilomene, tekison creek, tour, toyota, vantage, washington, west bar, whiskey dick, wildlife
Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area Overland Tour 07.21.07
After a night of camping along the Yakima River, we got up early, broke camp and headed to Ellensburg, Washington to meet up with the Northwest Backroad Drivers group to explore the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area just east of Ellensburg.
Categories: Adventures Tags: army, backroads, campsite, cayuse, columbia, communications, ellensburg, expedition, forest, gps, jeep, northwest, overland, park, parke creek, quilomene, river, skookumchuck, tour, vantage, washington, whiskey bay, whiskey dick, wild horse, wildlife, yakima
Camping in the Yakima River Canyon – 07.20.07
After a late start getting out of town, we finally made Ellensburg, Washington around 8:00 PM on Friday night. Not a lot of time to find a camping site, especially on Friday night. I spotted some campgrounds on the Yakima River in the Washington Road & Recreation Atlas south of Ellensburg in the canyon, so we headed that direction.
Categories: Adventures Tags: backroads, blm, camp, campground, camping, ellensburg, lmuma creek, northwest, quilomene, river, squaw creek, untanum creek, washington, yakima
Rimrock Roads and Trails – 06.07.07
Last Saturday, we just completed another wonderful trip with the Backroad Drivers Northwest group. On this trip we explored some of the roads near Rimrock Lake off Highway 12 in Washington state. Our focus for the day was the Wildcat Creek and Russell Ridge areas.
Categories: Adventures Tags: Adventures, backroads, lake, northwest, rimrock, russell ridge, washington, wildcat creek
Kapowsin-Ohop Valley Backroads
Anytime I'm traveling through Eatonville, Washington to get back to my home in Edgewood, one of my favorite routes to miss the infamous State Route (SR) 161 traffic through Graham and South Hill is to take the leisurely scenic drive through the Ohop Valley, past Lake Kapowsin and into the Puyallup Valley to Orting.
Categories: Adventures Tags: backroads, camp, camp one road, camping, carbonado, clay city, eatonville, elbe, electron, fish, fishing, graham, history, kapowsin, kosmos, lahar, lake, mineral, morton, mt rainier, mud flow, national park, nisqually, ohop, orting, orville, pse, puget sound eneregy, puyallup, railroad, randle, river, sigmond road, south prairie, tacoma, voss resort, washington, wildlife, wilkeson
