Yakima River Canyon, Washington

June 28, 2026

We had been fortunate to experience wonderful weather during our week in Joseph, Oregon, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. Our travel day brought cooler temperatures and sprinkles of rain. At least we weren't traveling at the higher elevations, which were treated to snow showers instead.

A rainy travel day

Into the mist we go

This looks like some challenging farm land

The weather cleared by the time we got to the Yakima Valley where there were lots of vineyards and orchards.

Hops, too

Entering the Yakima River Canyon

Pretty dramatic, but very brown

When we arrived late Friday afternoon at our campsite on the Yakima River, the campground was empty, even though all 8 of the sites showed reserved. One tent camper ended up pulling in as it was getting dark, and another showed up on Saturday evening, but that was it. We were wondering if the no-shows knew something that we didn't. Perhaps it was the wind. By the first evening, the wind started picking up, and it was our constant companion for our entire stay. We are not huge fans of wind. A little breeze is fine, but non-stop wind gets old after a while, particularly when it's not very warm outside. Saturday and the morning of Sunday were both in the low 60s, with the sun occasionally peeking out through the clouds. With the wind, it felt much colder. Fortunately, we were only going to be at this location through the weekend.

We took a brief stroll around the campground the first evening, just as it was starting to get windy.

All alone in the campground

We'll have to make a point of crossing this bridge sometime before we leave

After lazing around on Saturday, we decided on Sunday that we really should go and cross the bridge and check out what was on the other side. We both experienced a surprisingly strong amount of inertia in leaving the very un-windy camper to venture out and cross that big bad bridge. Happily, the weather became sunny and warm in the afternoon, making the wind much less imposing, and we managed to haul our butts out there to see what we could see.

Actually crossing the bridge! It swayed quite a bit in the wind

We walked a trail in a side canyon that followed a small creek. The wind was quite a bit calmer here.

The very small creek

We passed a woman painting the scene

It was about at this point where Julie noticed Rick stop abruptly and quickly take a picture. He then backed slowly away and said, "I think that was a rattlesnake!" If confirmed, this would be our first actual rattlesnake sighting since we began our travels.

Possible rattlesnake crossing the path

We weren't exactly enthused with the idea of continuing along this path, particularly since it was becoming increasingly brushy and there were some places where we couldn't see the ground we were stepping on. What could be lurking down there? We think we had a pretty good idea, and it didn't invoke warm feelings. We didn't see where the scenery would be much different up ahead anyway, so we decided to turn back.

The path was getting more brushy

Turning back the way we came

We also decided to go down by the river near our campsite and check it out. We walked along some lightly-used campsites which weren't all that interesting, so there are no pictures of them.

Yakima River access

Yep--sure looks like it was a rattlesnake!

On Sunday evening, a we had a couple more campers roll in. This one was cute...

That's all for now!

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