Archived Trip Report
Colcokum Pass Tour
September 9, 2006
This might sound like a broken record, but it was another
beautiful morning in Central Washington when we met at the
Bar 14 Restaurant in Ellensburg. In attendance were Gary
from Olympia with passengers Mark, all the way down from
Lyman, and Lee from Chehalis, riding in Gary's Jeep Grand
Cherokee; Rob & Cat made the long trip down from Anacortes
in their Ford Ranger 4x4 Pickup; and me, Jerry from Yakima,
only 35 miles from home, driving my Ford Bronco II. And
last, but not least, saddled with the chore of navigating
this expedition, was my esteemed passenger, David Williams
of "Visit Every City in Washington State" fame who had
driven over from Lake Stevens. Take a few minutes to check
out David's web page, you'll be glad you did:
http://www.visiteverycityinwashingtonstate.com/
Based upon information received from a Fish & Wildlife
Ranger we made some last minute changes to our plans. The
new plan was to take some lesser-traveled roads over the
mountain saving the Colockum Pass Road for our way back,
thus eliminating the rough downhill section of bedrock on
the Colockum Road. Our revised route would take us up
Coleman Canyon where we found ourselves in a sparse pine
forest almost immediately upon leaving the valley.
The road was improved gravel, fairly wide and in pretty
good condition despite heavy traffic from hunters enjoying
opening day of archery season. Hunters were everywhere.
As we drove up the road we pulled off several times to allow
oncoming vehicles to pass. Gary inquired over the CB if one
particular truckload of hunters were on the warpath? They
had done an outstanding job of painting their faces with
green, brown and black camouflage.
The road followed Coleman Creek for several miles until we
turned off on a side road leading toward Wenatchee Mountain.
We had encountered several forks in the road, many of which
could have taken us in the wrong direction, but David's
navigational skills kept us on the straight and narrow.
Roads open to the public were marked with a white post and a
green dot, "The Green Dot System". If we encountered a road
without a green dot, and we did, it was illegal to enter.
Our road traversed a hillside and from several vantage points
we had wonderful views of the Kittitas Valley and smoky, hazy
glimpses of the Cascades due to a forest fire near Cle Elum.*
Mount Rainier and Mount Adams were in good form, though. We
stopped for a few minutes at a wide spot to enjoy the view.
One problem with trying to enjoy the scenery while driving dirt
or gravel roads is the dust and somebody has to bring up the
tail end on every caravan. Those folks are the real troopers
on every trip. This time it was Rob & Cat who did the honors
and we thank them profusely. Rob & Cat, we hope you guys come
back!
Ahead of us in the distance we saw a transmission tower that
we thought must be on Wenatchee Mountain. It turned out to be
Naneum Point, a bit shy in elevation of Wenatchee Mountain with
an especially beautiful view to the east. Beyond Naneum Point
were other towers so we continued along a dusty dirt trail
littered with rocks. At one place we had to slow to a crawl as
we chose our line over a patch of football-sized rocks. But,
traversing the rocky obstacle was worth it.
The road ended at Wenatchee Mountain, a peak located between
Ellensburg and Wenatchee with an almost 360 degree view. It
was awesome, truly awesome! Grand Canyon awesome! Glacier
National Park awesome! Really! We were looking down on the
Mission Ridge Ski Area, the entire town of Wenatchee was at our
feet, miles of the Columbia River split the landscape and the
Stewart Mountain Range was almost at our fingertips. Wow! Why
had we never been there before? I'll bet we'll go back.
We backtracked on the dirt road, took a different line over the
rock patch and turned onto another side road at Naneum Point.
The road led us through more pine forests as we followed Naneum
Ridge to the top of Coleman Canyon. There were choices of other
roads along the way, some were wide and recently improved, but
without the green dots. There had been recent logging activity
in the area and we drove into a small logging operation where I
began thinking we had taken the wrong road and was ready to turn
around. But, David, an experienced navigator and self-professed
lover of maps, suggested we stick with the road we were on - and
he was right.
We reached a place called "4 Corners", an intersection of the
Naneum Ridge Road, Coleman Canyon Road and Jumpoff Ridge Road.
It was at the summit of the Wenatchee Mountains and could just
as well have been named "4 Corners Pass", but for some reason it
wasn't. More well known passes that cross the Wenatchee Mountains
are Blewett, Swauk, Colockum, Mission and Van Epps.*
With his thinking cap on straighter than mine, Gary asked if we
were going to stop for a tailgate lunch. I had in mind that we
could reach Wenatchee by 1:30 so I suggested we hold off. Well,
like I said, Gary's cap was on the right way. His idea was to
save time by skipping Wenatchee, have a tailgate lunch (for which
he brought the fixings for all of us) then tie directly into the
Colockum Road. I wish I had cleaned the dust out of my ears and
rattled my brain a little bit when Gary made his suggestion
because at 2:00 we were on a narrow dirt road, eating dust instead
of lunch and we were still a long way from town.
As an aside, someplace along a dusty stretch of road while
wondering if we would ever eat lunch, we came to a large pile of
stones. A hand painted sign explained the stones were in memory
of a loved one and family members added a new stone to the pile
every time they passed. Nice.
We finally reached Wenatchee sometime before 3:00. Several of the
folks had a lengthily drive in front of them so Mark, Lee and Gary
as well as Rob & Cat decided to head for home while David and I
stopped for lunch in Wenatchee.
After lunch at a restaurant with a pink 1957 Cadillac perched
twenty feet above the ground, we followed the Columbia River on
the Malaga Road to the beginning of the old Colockum Wagon Road.
The Colockum Road progressed from an Indian trial to a freight
wagon road, to a stagecoach road and finally met the end of its
useful life when the railroads, and later the automobile, found
easier and faster routes between Ellensburg and Wenatchee.
The road today is an un-maintained mix of dirt, gravel, heavy
crushed rock and bedrock. It has holes and ruts and is definitely
not for passenger cars. The road climbs Naneum Ridge through
sparse pine forests with several openings offering views of the
Columbia River and east to Quincy and Ephrata. The road crosses
the Colockum and Quilomene Wildlife Areas as well as other state
and private lands. And of course we passed more bow hunters as we
journeyed to the top of the pass.
One of David's goals was to have his picture taken in front of the
Colockum Pass sign. A couple of days prior to our trip the ranger
told me there was a sign at the pass, but we had a dickens of a
time finding it. With the help of my GPS in locating the highest
point and David's creativeness and our combined ingenuity, we
finally "stumbled" into a sign attached to a tree. And David got
his picture.
Beyond the pass the area was fairly flat with a sparse forest.
The road improved somewhat, but only because it was level and
suffered less erosion. We passed under power lines for a couple
of miles before dropping down the south side into the Kittitas
Valley. Despite the overall terrible condition of the Colockum
Road the trip was really quite enjoyable.
It was shortly after 6:00 when we reached the Bar 14 Restaurant
where David left his car. It had been a very long day and I really
appreciate everyone for attending. If you folks hadn't come all the
way from Anacortes, Chehalis, Lake Stevens, Lyman and Olympia this
Yakima guy would have been darned lonesome!
Jerry