{"id":1961,"date":"2017-05-12T20:34:33","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T20:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/old.cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2020-01-11T21:09:24","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T21:09:24","slug":"toppenish-wildlife-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2017\/05\/12\/toppenish-wildlife-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 26,2017<\/p>\n<p>Deb and I had our annual spring camping trip in late April. We left Portland under gray wet skies and headed towards Yakima, Washington. We hadn&#8217;t actually decided where we were going until a few days earlier. The wretched winter and ongoing bad weather meant that we made a last-minute decision based almost entirely on weather.<\/p>\n<p>It was a really pretty drive between Maryhill and Toppenish on Highway 97. We passed by Toppenish Wildlife Refuge and decided to stop and take a look.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4175\/34366265056_447a39cdd5_c.jpg\" alt=\"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We walked out to the viewing pavilion pictured above where we could see out over the refuge.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/3\/2816\/33597928073_3d2315dea7_c.jpg\" alt=\"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4182\/34248779282_7191bceb70_c.jpg\" alt=\"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then we followed a path for a little ways. We saw lots of birds. It was a peaceful spot except for the traffic noise from Highway 97.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/3\/2875\/34277417761_3a2da75a81_c.jpg\" alt=\"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4165\/34419410285_5ce06a6133_c.jpg\" alt=\"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4188\/34366580696_8a29b204d3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4181\/34378255416_d526c47b94_c.jpg\" alt=\"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;d had the idea of going to the bridge as our turnaround point. That&#8217;s not going to work! The road to the bridge was underwater.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/3\/2811\/34260457422_375b93b552_c.jpg\" alt=\"Toppenish Wildlife Refuge\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After our little ramble we drove to Yakima Sportsman State Park, a big park and campground right in the town of Yakima. We picked a spot, set up camp, and relaxed for awhile.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4162\/33857446584_e4a5849641_c.jpg\" alt=\"Yakima Sportsman State Park\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4158\/34378523376_428e5a22c9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Yakima Sportsman State Park\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There is a network of trails in the park which we decided to explore. We started out the dike that ran near our campsite.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4171\/34035084970_b044758c64_c.jpg\" alt=\"Yakima Sportsman State Park\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then we popped across a bridge and onto an island where we rambled around for awhile.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4156\/34420007845_6297aed972_c.jpg\" alt=\"Yakima Sportsman State Park\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4163\/34043998210_22c1f6e27e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Yakima Sportsman State Park\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The bulk of the Yakima River is on the opposite shore of the island. It was running full and fast!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4190\/34035077860_dc6ef68ec9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Yakima Sportsman State Park\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the banks of the river was this tree that a beaver had been diligently working on. Pretty cool!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/3\/2815\/33586771734_a5897eeefa_c.jpg\" alt=\"Yakima Sportsman State Park\" width=\"531\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We headed over to the little Wetlands Trail and saw a whole lot of red-winged blackbirds:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4185\/33586978834_05fd116cb3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Yakima Sportsman State Park\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Back at our campsite we made dinner. Once the sun went down it got real cold real quick. The campground firewood was locked up and there was no camp host from which to purchase firewood, so we crawled into our sleeping bags to read before going to sleep.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2017\/05\/13\/yakima-skyline\/\">Day 2: Yakima Skyline Hike >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 26,2017 Deb and I had our annual spring camping trip in late April. We left Portland under gray wet<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2017\/05\/12\/toppenish-wildlife-refuge\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Toppenish Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3100,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions\/3100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}