Out/Back: Tieton River Nature Trail

As summer gives way to fall, I look east of the Cascades for hiking trails. With everything west of the mountains soaked in rain, my mind wanders toward drier stretches of trail. Given the season, this often means hiking in colder than usual temperatures, navigating mountain passes, and trail conditions.

For this outing, I turned my attention to the Tieton River Nature Trail outside of Yakima, Washington. Eastern Washington is rolling hills and treeless stretches. Western Washington is lush green forests. For me, I always find this change of scenery inspiring. It also serves as an opportunity to test my trail knowledge in new and exciting ways.

Given that the trail sits next to a river in a canyon, the Tieton River Nature Trail feels like an oasis with trees lining both sides of the bank. On the weekend I visited in late November, the trail spent much of the day covered in shadows. Thanks to an early season of snow and rain, ice covered much of the trail. At first, I did not give this much thought. Astounded by the beauty of the setting, I was blind to the scale of the challenge before me.

A mile and a half into the trail, the elevation picks up. On the last weekend in November, this meant the slightest change in the slope turned the trail into a slide. Taking the smallest of steps, I did my best to navigate the tricky terrain…