Cowiche Canyon on the road to history

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima's past melds with its future perhaps in no better place than Cowiche Canyon Road, west of the city.

There, a narrow country road meanders between hills of volcanic rock that spread east from the Goat Rocks up to a million years ago.

Andesite lava filled the Tieton River Canyon with a flow that the U.S. Geological Survey indicates is the longest of its type on earth.

Just south of the road's intersection with Powerhouse Road and around a sharp bend is a more than century-old flume structure that supplies irrigation water to the Yakima Valley Canal Co. The company serves 4,300 acres stretching from northwest Yakima around to the West Valley area.

Although deteriorated by time, the wooden flume remains an example of the ingenuity that made the Valley bloom.

This piece of Cowiche Canyon Road is in for a change this fall that will include a pedestrian bridge over the road, one of the first pieces of the William O. Douglas trail to be constructed. The trail is a dream of several people in Yakima to link the late Supreme Court justice's home with his wilderness haunts where he hiked as a youth to strengthen his polio-ravaged legs.

The trail will link Davis High School to Mount Rainier National Park, a distance of 75 miles through a variety of landscapes, from city streets through sagebrush through the William O. Douglas Wilderness to mountain peaks. The trail will traverse a variety of habitats, among the most diverse in the country for trails of similar lengths.

The trail will pass by Rimrock Lake and will include the prehistoric Cowlitz Trail that Indians living on both sides of the Cascades used as a travel and trade route. The trail also will follow the current route of the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy Trail.

Total cost, including engineering, will be about $915,000. The county received a $200,000 federal grant and will pay the rest from money generated by the county road tax.It's uncertain when the trail will be finished.

It is a concept that has intrigued people from around the country, said William O. Douglas Trail Foundation treasurer Cec Vogt of Yakima.

"People are fascinated we can start at his high school,
walk through his neighbor-hood, travel to Snow Mountain Ranch where he visited and on through the William O. Douglas Wilderness," she said. "There are some intriguing connections."

Some gaps exist in the trail route, which relies on existing trails and old rail beds across public land.

One of those gaps is here, between the end of the Yakima Greenway near 40th Avenue and the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy trail, some two miles away.

Yakima County Engineer Gary Ekstedt said the bridge and Cowiche Canyon Road section of pathway is being built as part of a county plan to straighten the road and bury the canal company siphon beneath the road.

The straightened road
will result in a more direct
intersection with Power-house Road to improve safety at the intersection.

The curvy section of Cowiche Canyon Road is a safety issue, the scene of several accidents. Since 2001, the curve has been the scene of nine accidents, including head-on collisions and sideswipe accidents. No accidents have occurred since 2006. There have been no fatalities.

The old siphon hangs low over the road, posing a hazard of its own. A motor-home or pickup camper could hit the flume. Ekstedt said standard minimum clearance under bridges on state highways is 14 feet. At its lowest point, the siphon provides less than 12 feet.

The road is seeing increasing traffic, Ekstedt said, as motorists use it as a back way from Scenic Drive to U.S. Highway 12 and the Fred Meyer complex. As many as 2,000 cars per day use Cowiche Canyon Road, the county estimates.

"Each summer, everyone holds their breath because if someone hits it, it will be a major expense," Ekstedt said, not to mention an interruption of water to canal users.

The project has been in the works for several years, complicated by the historic nature of the canal flume as selected by the state Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Cowiche Canyon Road is east of the Painted Rocks where rock art was left by Yakama Indians a thousand years ago.

In order to straighten the road, the county must carve away up to 40 feet of the rock wall for a distance of 300 feet on the east side of the road.

The plan has raised concern from some people who live in the canyon.

One of them is Gary Peterson, a pear grower and lifelong resident of the canyon.

He calls Cowiche Canyon Road a picturesque county road that should be left alone. The rock face is an example of the Andesite lava flow that ends just east of the roadway. No examples of Andesite lava exist east of 40th Avenue, according to geologists.

"It should be left a windy country road like it is. It shouldn't be straightened. Also, it's going to leave a mess," Peterson argued. "They are going to abandon a section of road that will look ugly. I have to believe they could still go overhead with the siphon but elevate it."

Ekstedt said no one raised the rock wall as a historical issue during the county's review. Also, burying the flume is the most cost-effective way to resolve the safety issue, he added.

Supporters of the Douglas trail are looking forward to the bridge, the first piece of the trail to be constructed.

The bridge, which will accommodate walkers and bicyclists, is one of two bridges on the drawing boards.

Yakima City Engineer Doug Mayo said the other project is to refurbish the trolley bridge between Yakima and Selah. He said the plan is to extend a spur of the trail to the top of Lookout Point, another hiking haunt Douglas used.

"The intent, depending on working with willing landowners, is to have a way to hike up to the top of the hill on the north side of the river," Mayo said.

The city, along with the trail foundation and the Cowiche Canyon Conser-vancy, have obtained grants of nearly $2.7 million to build the bridge, purchase right of way, additional path-
way construction and a variety of habitat restoration projects along the trail route.

"We are obtaining the right of way and hopefully, through the good graces of volunteer time and sweat, they can construct the pathway," Mayo said.

Barb Gilbert, executive director of the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy, said the group has been a major supporter of creating the Douglas pathway that will include the 3.1-mile conservancy path.

But before the trails can be linked, the addition of the Cowiche Canyon Road bridge and a piece of trail to parallel the new road must be completed.

"All the participants recognize for a variety of reasons from safety to mobility and economic development, the issue of the road needs to be taken care of," Ekstedt said.

* David Lester can be reached at 577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.

William O. Douglas

William O. Douglas, the longest-serving justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, is Yakima's most famous son. But he was not a native.

Born in Minnesota, Douglas grew up in Yakima. He hiked in the hills surrounding the city, developing a lifelong love of the outdoors.

Douglas graduated from Yakima High School (now Davis), Whitman College and Columbia University Law School, where he later taught.

After a stint teaching at Yale Law School, he went to work for the Securities and Exchange Commission, becoming its chairman within two years.

President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Douglas to the Supreme Court in 1939. He served until 1975, when poor health forced him to retire.

Douglas died in 1980 at age 81.