Washington State DNR Releases Final Recreation Plan For Ahtanum State Forest
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2010
DNR, Citizen Group Work To Improve Recreation Opportunities And Access
OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today released a recreation plan for the Ahtanum State Forest, a 76,000-acre block of forested state trust land about 20 miles west of Yakima.
The Ahtanum State Forest is a popular year-round recreation area for visitors from both sides of the Cascade Mountains. Over the years, the area has experienced increased use from a variety of recreation activities including off-road vehicle riding, hiking, hunting, and horseback riding.
“This plan provides the foundation for creating safe, sustainable, and enjoyable recreation opportunities in the Ahtanum State Forest,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark. “The strength of the plan lies in the collaborative efforts of citizens representing diverse recreation interests who helped develop a vision for the forest.”
Categories: Access Tags: ahtanum state forest, biking, cascade mountains, cross-country skiing, dnr, four wheel drive, hiking, horseback riding, hunting, motorized recreation, non-motorized recreation, off road, public lands, recreation, sno-park, snowmobiling, state forest, washington, washington state, washington state department of natural resources, winter recreation, yakima
Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route Trip
Over on the forum at OBCDR Trip Report, Decidion posted up a web page with a trip report of a recent 4-day trip through the Oregon Backcountry.
Decidion describes the trip as follows:
“The Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route is a series of gravel and offroad/4×4 trails that leads from the California border all the way up to the Washington border along the eastern edge of the Cascade mountains. It is primarily US Forest Service roads, some of which are maintain, but a lot of them have not seen any cleanup since the last person who ran the route.”
Read the trip report at Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route Trip.
Categories: On The Web Tags: 4x4, backcountry, california, cascade mountains, obcdr, offroad, oregon, oregon backcountry discovery route, washington
Burley Mountain to Mt St Helens Tour 10.13.07
Each time I venture to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the South Cascades of Washington state, I am simply amazed at the beauty of the country. In this region, not only are you are surrounded by four major peaks of the Cascade Mountains (Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood), there is an extensive variety of terrain ranging from deep valleys and canyons to exposed buttes and cliffs, alpine meadows to old growth forests, and of course, the Mt. St. Helens blast zone. I could easily spend days or even weeks just exploring the region.
With that in mind, I decided to host a Backroad Drivers Northwest tour in the area just south of Randle, Washington. This region is an area which I am fairly familiar with having spent a lot of time hunting, camping and exploring with my father while growing up. The tour would follow one of my favorite routes in the area, Forest Road 77 from the Burley Mountain Lookout along the ridge past Pinto Rock and Mosquito Meadows. From Mosquito Meadows, we would would take FS 99 to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint at Mt. St. Helens and follow FS 26 back to Randle.
Read more…
Categories: Adventures Tags: adventure, burley mountain, buttes, camping, canyons, cascade mountains, cascades, cispus, cowlitz, fishing, forest, gifford pinchot, glenoma, goat rocks, hunting, iron creek, jeep, lake scanewa, lookout, meadows, mosquito meadows, mt adams, mt hood, mt rainier, mt st helens, national forest, norway pass, outdoors, pinto rock, quartz creek, randle, spirit lake, tour, travel, trips, washington, windy ridge, woods creek
Sunrise at Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington – 09.29.07
Last Saturday (September 29, 2007), we decided a make a predawn trip to Sunrise at Mt Rainier National Park in Washington state to take photos of the rising sun on the mountain.
We were experiencing rain showers when we left our home in the early morning. Luckily for us, the higher in elevation we gained, the clearer the weather became.
Once we entered the national park and passed the White River Ranger station, we started to see patches of snow on the road. Once we arrived in the Sunrise parking lot, it was blanketed with several inches of the seasons’ first snow fall. We could clearly see the outline of Mt Rainier through the darkness.
From the main visitors center, we climbed the ridge and followed it toward Mt. Rainier to the Frozen Lake viewpoint, taking photos along the way.
On our way back to the parking lot, the clouds started rolling in and by the time we got back to the visitors center, the mountain was completely obscured by clouds.
All summer long, I had wanted to get up in the early morning hours and make the trip to Sunrise in order to take photos of the sun rising on Mt. Rainier. The wait for this experience was worth it, with excellent lighting, the first snow of the season and clear weather.
You can view the photos taken on this trip at Mt Rainier National Park 09.29.2007.
Categories: Adventures Tags: cascade mountains, cascades, mount rainier, mt rainier, mt rainier national park, national park, outdoors, park, snow, sunrise, washington, washington cascades
Categories: Off Track Tags: alpine, cascade mountains, cascades, mountains, mt rainier, national park, northwest, pacific northwest, paradise, park, sunrise, washington cascades, winter
Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 – Final Thoughts
Over the last four days, I completed a 681 mile adventure (not counting the additional 465 miles to get to the starting point and back home again) following an overland route through the Cascade Mountains of Washington state, stretching from the Columbia River near Carson, Washington to Chopaka at the border crossing with British Columbia. From my records, about 63% of the overland route was on forest roads.
Categories: Adventures, On The Web Tags: 4wd, 4x4, 80-series, adventure, bethel ridge, british columbia, carson, cascade mountains, cascades, chelan, chopaka, cle elum, columbia river, expedition, fj80, forest road, four wheel drive, ghost towns, land cruiser, manastash, mines, okanogan, oregon discovery route, overland, packwood, seattle, similkameen river, toyota, trail, trip, walla walla, washington
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 – Day Three (08.12.07)
To Drive from near Blewett Pass (Cle Elum) to Chelan, Washington via as many forest roads as possible.
Categories: Adventures Tags: adventure, antilon lake, blewett pass, british columbia, camp, camping, campsite, cascade mountains, cascades, cashmere, chelan, chumstick, cle elum, columbia river, cooper mountain, cooper ridge, domke, durst creek, eagle creek, entiat, expedition, fj80, forest road, haney meadows, lake chelan, land cruiser, landcruiser, leavenworth, liberty, lookout, manson, mission creek, nahahum, national forest, okanogan, overland, shady pass, toyota, trip, upper joe creek, wapato lake, washington, wenatchee, wenatchee national forest, wenatchee river
