Beaver Tail by Rattlesnake Dance Ridge rests on Manastash Ridge, overlooking Yakima River Canyon.
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Beaver Tail at a Glance
Access: Umtanum Creek Recreation Site
Round Trip: 7.7 miles
Elevation Range: 1340′-1924′
Gear: none
GPS Track: available
Dog-Friendly: yes
The Preface on Beaver Tail
Beaver Tail was my cool-down hike after last Thursday. I’ve seen it during many trips here. But it didn’t interest me until our recent outing across the water. It has always dominated the canyon view, so I decided to research.
Somehow I’ve always had the image of people reaching the teardrop-shaped protrusion by boating across the Yakima River. But as it turned out, the best way to Beaver Tail was going through Manastash Ridge. Who knew?
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Umtanum Creek Recreation Site
We started in the late morning. So by that time, the crux of the trip was going past the Umtanum Canyon crowds. But there were also groups of people accessing the boat launch. So it was quite a busy morning when we arrived!
It took some time to locate the starting of the ridge trail. But it also wasn’t apparent that we would need to cross the Umtanum Creek under the railroad tracks. Though, on the way up, we went over the tracks and stumbled across the path that way.
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Ridge Walk
The first part of the trail up to the ridge was just half a mile. The path was sometimes steep. But it was the gravel that made the walk up more arduous than needed. Shortly, we were up on the ridgeline just as the landscape behind us slowly took shape.
From there, we then spent the next two miles hiking north on an old roadbed. In comparison to the west, landscape out east was much more enjoyable and expansive. There we had a decent view of Yakima River as it wound through the canyon.
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Beaver Tail Summit
Before the turnoff, I saw three tall cairns by the rim. But not sure if they served any purpose. Shortly, we went down the east ridge from the top of the basalt walls. Then a couple of small cliffs required us to bypass them on the south of the rocky ground. Once we got down to the saddle, we had lost 850′.
From there, it was less than half a mile to reach the top of Beaver Tail. Views on this high point were rather disappointing. Mainly because of the towering Manastash Ridge on the other side of the river. It also blocked the landscape to the east.
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Outro
We couldn’t see the river from up here. So we didn’t stay long. Then we went back to the saddle and enjoyed views of the river bends on both sides. I did some research as I wrote this post. Then I discovered that the river was here long before the canyon had formed. How neat!
Later, we climbed back up to the ridgeline. But not before we caught the warning of a rattlesnake by a bush. So we backed up fast and went around it! We reached the railroad in 2.5 miles. But this time, we went under it to go back up to the parking lot.
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