The Slab Febuary 2nd, 2013

A few weeks ago, an invitation was posted by Eastern Washington Adventures to come up to an area near Zillah, Washington known as The Slab. During the snow camping trip a few weeks earlier, I'd talked to Jason and Gregg about going to this run so when it came up I was definitely in. The plan was to camp at a place that they'd stayed at a few times in the past, known affectionately as Camp Cowpie, near Goldendale, Washington. They headed up Friday morning but I had to work Friday so with coordinates in hand, I headed east after work in search of camp. After missing the turn off into camp and finding a gate blocking the road I got the fun experience of backing my trailer uphill in the dark in the snow, it was a real adventure. After walking the road into camp to make sure it was the right one, I finally got into camp and setup, then spent the rest of the evening by the fire.

Following a very cold breakfast, it was 20 degrees when we woke up, we decided to pack up camp just to be safe and headed for Zillah. We met the very large group at the staging area, aired down and rolled out. The Slab doesn't cover a lot of ground, only a few hundred acres but it is tightly packed with trails that zig zag all over the hillsides. I elected to tow the trailer so I could get an idea of what I was capable of doing with it attached. We headed first for an area known as Flex Canyon, a tight canyon with some rock formations that pitches your rig toward the other side of the canyon. The nice thing about The Slab is that there is a bypass or viewing area for everything, so I never once had to get my trailer in danger. From Flex Canyon, we made our way around the area, hitting up several play areas including one known as Rollover Hill. I avoided most of the hard trails but still found some fun stuff to do with my Jeep and trailer.

After the wheeling fun was done, Jason, Gregg and I swung through Toppenish to hit up a grocery store and gas station before heading back over Satus Pass, through Goldendale and back to Camp Cowpie. Sunday morning, we decided to go over Dalles Mountain and drop down to hwy 97 near The Dalles. We explored some muddy side roads along the way, then stopped at Horsethief Butte to explore some of the petroglyphs. We continued west, checking out a few areas that will need some more exploring in the future and found a great campsite near Stevenson. We'll have to go back in that area when the roads are a bit drier and I don't have the trailer, as it proved to be a bit of a hindrance on some of the roads.


Slab Track at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Yakima, Washington
      
      
      
      
  
      
 
        

These pictures can also be viewed on Facebook, along with other photos I uploaded during the trip at Facebook.com/RMRX.blogspot