05-09-26
Kim
was free for a Saturday hike
and we wanted to go east of the Cascades for a wildflower hike. We
discussed several ideas and settled on the Westberg Trail on Manastash
Ridge. It is a long drive and on my previous four visits the lot was
nearly full when I arrived. We met in North Seattle and I drove east.
Traffic was light and we reached the trailhead at the end of Cove Road
at 8:37 am. The lot was only about half full with more arriving. The
sky was blue and it was in the high 50s but warm in the sunshine. We
packed up and were on our way at 8:49 am. We headed up the old road.
The grass around it was tall and lush. On previous visits, there was a
bridge over a canal at the start. It is no longer there. The canal must
be underground now. We quickly reached the start of the route up the
more open slope. The wildflower show began immediately. Desert parsley
was the first flower. Bitterbrush was covered with yellow flowers. A
few old bootpaths have signs noting they have been closed. The
balsamroot show then began. Some were past prime but many others were
still at prime. The low morning sun really lit up the big yellow
flowers. There was no wind and it was already feeling pretty warm. Kim
noticed the half moon right ahead of us.
The flowers were not as thick as on other visits. The variety expanded as we ascended, though. Some nice reddish buckwheat were just opening. We started seeing patches of big white phlox. That continued as we ascended. The flower show was good enough that we kept stopping for more photos. In these conditions I don't mind hiking slowly. We saw multiple bushes with lots of red flowers just about to bloom. Neither of us had any idea what it was. So far this spring, I had only seen blooming lupine after seven miles of hiking on the Palouse To Cascades railroad grade a week earlier. This day we had lots of blooming lupine. It is a treat to have balsamroot still in bloom when the lupine show starts. Add in some white phlox and you get a really colorful sloped. Periodically, we saw a few prairie stars. The long thin stems make them hard to photograph if there is any wind. There was no wind. I took quite a few photos. We saw the first penstemon of the year. There were only a few patches of pink penstemon but they were big patches. After gaining about 300' I looked back and saw the tops of snowy peaks. A little higher up we could see it was the Stuart Range. We had grassy farms and ranches below with the mountains and wind turbines farther away. With the clear blue sky it made for a beautiful panorama.
Kim started to feel a little off kilter. This is a steep trail with little shade and we took a break. We went a little farther but she was not feeling well. I suggested we could still go for our other possible trip we had considered. Last Sunday I did 16 miles on the Cascade To Palouse Trail east of South Cle Elum. The wildflowers were pretty good. The first part in the canyon along the Yakima River is partly shaded and the route is flat. That seemed like a better place for Kim this day. We were about .70 miles up the Westberg Trail with about 600' gained. We headed back to the trailhead. By now there were plenty of hikers coming up. We were back at the car at 10:19 am. Kim was feeling better on the descent. Our first trip was short but we did see a lot of spring wildflowers.
We headed back to Cle Elum then South Cle Elum and on to the small parking lot just above the old railroad grade. We arrived at 10:55 am. By 11:04 we were back on the trail. Part of the Stuart Range was in sight from the trailhead. This was the second time in a week I was on this trail. Just dropping to the grade passed a big bush of bluebells and a bigger Oregon grape bush. Both had lost a lot of flowers in the past week. The grade was in full sunshine but it was not far to the start of the canyon. We saw one guy who was heading down to the Yakima River to go fishing. We saw people fishing in waders in the river and on small boats. In the first bit of grade we saw blooming arrowleaf balsamroot, prairie stars, fernleaf biscuitflower, serviceberry, desert parsley, and lupine. Like the first hike we had great variety but not huge patches of flowers.
The river came into sight. The grade/trail is often close to the river but the view is blocked by all the trees. In places there are very good views of the river. We saw a small boat at anchor with two people fishing and a dog along, too. We saw them much closer later on. The flat grade and shade seemed to perk up Kim. There are to picnic table rest areas and then the Ponderosa campground all in the first 3 miles. We stopped at several of them coming and going. Next up were blooming silver crown and Solomon seal and a few well past prime trillium. At 1.4 miles we reached the spot where the Teanaway River meets the Yakima. There were two guys in waders fishing. At this spot I saw a bunch of blooming Oregon anemones last week. They were all gone this day. Now the skunk cabbage show started. The yellow spathes were all finished. What was left were huge patches of bright green leaved plants. On of them went on and on and also went father back from the grade.
At about 2.7 miles we reached a small bootpath heading towards the river. This quickly enters a meadow with lots of wildflowers. The arrowleaf balsamroot were especially prolific here. We also saw some silver crown and some peas. I had check this out last week but did not drop down to a lower meadow. This time we did. That meadow goes right to the shore of the Yakima River. The river is quite wide at this time and we were able to sit right on the shore at river level. It was a really neat spot that I will see again on my next visit. It was here that the small boat reappeared. They anchored near the opposite shore. We arrived at 12:56 pm in time for a late lunch. It was so nice, we were in no hurry to leave. It was 1:31 when we left. We were almost back to the grade when Kim noticed several blooming chocolate lilies. I saw some the week before at the campground but those were gone when we arrived there. We just had a short hike on the grade/trail to reach Ponderosa Campground. There were more balsamroot there and some very colorful flowers that turned out to be sticky purple geraniums. That was not a name I was familiar with. We had a short break and headed a little farther down the grade. We passed the closed gate where there is a big pond. We saw a duck and a redwing blackbird there.
We went a little farther to the middle of the big powerline corridor. Massive pylons bring hydroelectric power from dams on the Columbia River to the west side of the state. Below the grade are some apple trees. The blossoms have fallen and the apples have not yet formed. Kim and I visited in the late summer once and found ripe apples. We had a good view across the river to a grassy meadow. That was our turnaround spot. We had come about 3.3 miles. On the way back we stayed on the grade. We enjoyed the flowers along the route once again. Though this is primarily a mountain bike route we did see a few hikers and not many bikers. All in all, I have never seen a crowd here.
We reached the car at 3:56 pm. We managed to get in a full day of hiking and wildflower watching over our two trips. The total was about 7.4 miles with 600' of elevation gain. We made the right decision turning back in the morning. Kim felt much better on the grade and we still managed some good mileage. I saw many of the same flowers on the Palouse To Cascades grade this week but also some different ones. There were almost no lupine in bloom on the first visit and many in bloom on the second. After a long winter and early spring on the west side of the mountains it was nice to get out a second time on the east side. We took a gamble going east on I-90 as I-405 was closed south of I-90 and Highway 520 was closed too. The backup for Highway 18 was almost to North Bend but we went by with just a small slowdown. I-90 was slow across Mercer Island and the bridge but that too was not as bad as expected. It was a beautiful sunny day with blooming wildflowers. It was not yet too hot east of the crest. It was a nearly perfect day for a wildflower hike or two.
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Trips - 2026
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The flowers were not as thick as on other visits. The variety expanded as we ascended, though. Some nice reddish buckwheat were just opening. We started seeing patches of big white phlox. That continued as we ascended. The flower show was good enough that we kept stopping for more photos. In these conditions I don't mind hiking slowly. We saw multiple bushes with lots of red flowers just about to bloom. Neither of us had any idea what it was. So far this spring, I had only seen blooming lupine after seven miles of hiking on the Palouse To Cascades railroad grade a week earlier. This day we had lots of blooming lupine. It is a treat to have balsamroot still in bloom when the lupine show starts. Add in some white phlox and you get a really colorful sloped. Periodically, we saw a few prairie stars. The long thin stems make them hard to photograph if there is any wind. There was no wind. I took quite a few photos. We saw the first penstemon of the year. There were only a few patches of pink penstemon but they were big patches. After gaining about 300' I looked back and saw the tops of snowy peaks. A little higher up we could see it was the Stuart Range. We had grassy farms and ranches below with the mountains and wind turbines farther away. With the clear blue sky it made for a beautiful panorama.
Kim started to feel a little off kilter. This is a steep trail with little shade and we took a break. We went a little farther but she was not feeling well. I suggested we could still go for our other possible trip we had considered. Last Sunday I did 16 miles on the Cascade To Palouse Trail east of South Cle Elum. The wildflowers were pretty good. The first part in the canyon along the Yakima River is partly shaded and the route is flat. That seemed like a better place for Kim this day. We were about .70 miles up the Westberg Trail with about 600' gained. We headed back to the trailhead. By now there were plenty of hikers coming up. We were back at the car at 10:19 am. Kim was feeling better on the descent. Our first trip was short but we did see a lot of spring wildflowers.
We headed back to Cle Elum then South Cle Elum and on to the small parking lot just above the old railroad grade. We arrived at 10:55 am. By 11:04 we were back on the trail. Part of the Stuart Range was in sight from the trailhead. This was the second time in a week I was on this trail. Just dropping to the grade passed a big bush of bluebells and a bigger Oregon grape bush. Both had lost a lot of flowers in the past week. The grade was in full sunshine but it was not far to the start of the canyon. We saw one guy who was heading down to the Yakima River to go fishing. We saw people fishing in waders in the river and on small boats. In the first bit of grade we saw blooming arrowleaf balsamroot, prairie stars, fernleaf biscuitflower, serviceberry, desert parsley, and lupine. Like the first hike we had great variety but not huge patches of flowers.
The river came into sight. The grade/trail is often close to the river but the view is blocked by all the trees. In places there are very good views of the river. We saw a small boat at anchor with two people fishing and a dog along, too. We saw them much closer later on. The flat grade and shade seemed to perk up Kim. There are to picnic table rest areas and then the Ponderosa campground all in the first 3 miles. We stopped at several of them coming and going. Next up were blooming silver crown and Solomon seal and a few well past prime trillium. At 1.4 miles we reached the spot where the Teanaway River meets the Yakima. There were two guys in waders fishing. At this spot I saw a bunch of blooming Oregon anemones last week. They were all gone this day. Now the skunk cabbage show started. The yellow spathes were all finished. What was left were huge patches of bright green leaved plants. On of them went on and on and also went father back from the grade.
At about 2.7 miles we reached a small bootpath heading towards the river. This quickly enters a meadow with lots of wildflowers. The arrowleaf balsamroot were especially prolific here. We also saw some silver crown and some peas. I had check this out last week but did not drop down to a lower meadow. This time we did. That meadow goes right to the shore of the Yakima River. The river is quite wide at this time and we were able to sit right on the shore at river level. It was a really neat spot that I will see again on my next visit. It was here that the small boat reappeared. They anchored near the opposite shore. We arrived at 12:56 pm in time for a late lunch. It was so nice, we were in no hurry to leave. It was 1:31 when we left. We were almost back to the grade when Kim noticed several blooming chocolate lilies. I saw some the week before at the campground but those were gone when we arrived there. We just had a short hike on the grade/trail to reach Ponderosa Campground. There were more balsamroot there and some very colorful flowers that turned out to be sticky purple geraniums. That was not a name I was familiar with. We had a short break and headed a little farther down the grade. We passed the closed gate where there is a big pond. We saw a duck and a redwing blackbird there.
We went a little farther to the middle of the big powerline corridor. Massive pylons bring hydroelectric power from dams on the Columbia River to the west side of the state. Below the grade are some apple trees. The blossoms have fallen and the apples have not yet formed. Kim and I visited in the late summer once and found ripe apples. We had a good view across the river to a grassy meadow. That was our turnaround spot. We had come about 3.3 miles. On the way back we stayed on the grade. We enjoyed the flowers along the route once again. Though this is primarily a mountain bike route we did see a few hikers and not many bikers. All in all, I have never seen a crowd here.
We reached the car at 3:56 pm. We managed to get in a full day of hiking and wildflower watching over our two trips. The total was about 7.4 miles with 600' of elevation gain. We made the right decision turning back in the morning. Kim felt much better on the grade and we still managed some good mileage. I saw many of the same flowers on the Palouse To Cascades grade this week but also some different ones. There were almost no lupine in bloom on the first visit and many in bloom on the second. After a long winter and early spring on the west side of the mountains it was nice to get out a second time on the east side. We took a gamble going east on I-90 as I-405 was closed south of I-90 and Highway 520 was closed too. The backup for Highway 18 was almost to North Bend but we went by with just a small slowdown. I-90 was slow across Mercer Island and the bridge but that too was not as bad as expected. It was a beautiful sunny day with blooming wildflowers. It was not yet too hot east of the crest. It was a nearly perfect day for a wildflower hike or two.
 Lush Grass |
 Desert Parsley |
 Bitterbrush |
 Backlit Balsamroot |
 Heading Uphill |
 First Lupine |
 Buckwheat |
 Perfect Balsamroot |
 Lupine & Desert Parsley |
 White Phlox |
 Small Yellow Daisies |
 Prairie Stars |
 Penstemon |
 Penstemon Close Up |
 Triteleia |
 Purple Lupine |
 Mountains & Valley View |
 Unknown Flower |
 Another Triteleia |
 Salsify |
 Fernleaf Biscuitflower |
 Another Prairie Star |
 Lined With Desert Parsley |
 Yakima River |
 Fishing From Boat |
 Palouse To Cascades |
 Sliver Crown |
 Teanaway River |
 Rock Face |
 River & Grade |
 Skunk Cabbage |
 Peas |
 Balsamroot Meadow |
 Perfect Balsamroot II |
 More Silver Crown |
 Down By The River |
 Nice Colors |
 Death Camas |
 Great Contrast |
 Chocolate Lily |
 Sticky Purple Geranium |
 Ponderosa Campground |
 Balsamroot Bush |
 Apple Trees |
 Pine Needles |
 Indian Paintbrush |
 Skunk Cabbage Leaf |
 Shaded Grade |
 Trillium |
 Violets |
 Some Flower |
 Stuart Range |
Trips - 2026
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