Yakima River Canyon
State Route 821
Ellensburg, WA
A slow, twisting 27-mile drive that most highway travelers skip, following the Yakima River through walls of stacked basalt where bighorn sheep pick their way along the cliffs.
The Yakima River Canyon is the drive most Washingtonians skip, and that is exactly its charm. Where the interstate barrels over the ridges between Ellensburg and Yakima, State Route 821 slips down into the canyon and follows the Yakima River for 27 slow, curving miles, hemmed in by cliffs of dark basalt stacked like cordwood. In 1968 it became the first road in the state to be named a Washington Scenic Byway, and it has lost none of its quiet appeal.
This is central Washington at its best: big skies, sagebrush hills, and a green river winding through walls of rock that in places rise 2,000 feet overhead. It rewards a driver willing to slow down, and even more so anyone who stops to float, fish, or simply sit by the water and watch the cliffs for movement.
What Guests Love
- A quiet, curving river road that feels a world away from the nearby freeway
- Bighorn sheep, elk, and mule deer along the banks and cliffs
- Lazy summer floats and rafting on a gentle, scenic river
- Fly fishing a blue-ribbon trout stream framed by basalt walls
Worth Knowing
- The road is narrow and winding with few pullouts, so drive relaxed and let faster traffic by
- This is high desert; summers are hot with little shade, so carry water for any stop or float
- Rattlesnakes and ticks live in the shrub-steppe, so watch your step off the road
- Much of the canyon is public land managed for recreation, with river access sites; a day-use fee or pass may apply at some launches
Details
Ellensburg, WA
Learn about Yakima River Canyon
A river through stacked basalt
The canyon's walls tell a story written in lava. The dark, columnar cliffs are made of the Columbia River basalts, immense floods of molten rock that poured across the region millions of years ago, layer upon layer, cooling into the stacked columns you see today. As the land slowly rose, the Yakima River kept cutting down through it, carving the deep, winding canyon it flows through now.
The result is a landscape of great walls and tight bends, with the river looping back on itself and the road clinging to its bank. In the low light of morning and evening the basalt glows warm, and the shrub-steppe hills above soften from gray to gold, a subtle, dry-country beauty that grows on you the longer you linger.
Bighorn sheep and a canyon full of birds
The canyon is one of the best places in the state to see wildlife from the road. Bighorn sheep make their home on the steep slopes and rocky ledges, and drivers regularly spot them near the river, along with elk and mule deer that come down to the water. Patience and a slow pace are the only tools you need.
Overhead, the cliffs hold one of the densest concentrations of nesting raptors in Washington, hawks, eagles, and falcons riding the updrafts along the rimrock. In all, more than 200 species of birds use the canyon at some point in the year, whether to breed, to rest on migration, or to winter in its sheltered bottom, making it a favorite of birdwatchers as well as anglers.
Floating and fishing the Yakima
The Yakima through the canyon is a gentle, friendly river, and in summer it fills with rafts and inner tubes drifting the miles between access points, one of the classic lazy floats in central Washington. The water is mostly calm, the current unhurried, and the scenery constant, which makes it a favorite for families and first-timers as well as seasoned paddlers.
The river is also a celebrated trout stream, managed as blue-ribbon catch-and-release water for rainbow and cutthroat trout. Fly anglers wade its runs and drift its banks in every season, sharing the water in summer with the floaters, all of them held in the same quiet embrace of basalt and sky.
The canyon through the seasons
The canyon changes character with the calendar. Spring greens the hills and brings wildflowers to the slopes, with the river running high and cold off the mountain snow. Summer is float season, hot and bright, when rafts and tubes drift the miles of gentle water and the basalt radiates the day's heat into the evening.
Fall quiets the crowds and turns the streamside cottonwoods gold, with some of the best fishing of the year arriving in the cooler water. Winter is starkest and most solitary, the shrub-steppe brown and the cliffs dusted with snow, when bighorn sheep and wintering birds have the canyon largely to themselves. Any season rewards a slow drive, but each shows the canyon a different face.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Ellensburg
Ellensburg
North end of the canyon
A lively college and ranching town with a historic downtown, home to one of the country's oldest rodeos over Labor Day weekend.
Yakima Valley wine country
South of the canyon
The oldest wine region in Washington, with vineyards, tasting rooms, hop fields, and roadside fruit stands spreading across the valley.
Umtanum Recreation Area
Along State Route 821
A popular river access and trailhead midway through the canyon, with a suspension footbridge over the Yakima and hikes up a side canyon.