Yakima Sportsman State Park – state parks quest #42

The first time I went to Yakima Sportsman State Park, I was looking for a convenient place to camp after a book reading event in downtown Yakima. The second time, Mr. Adventure and I were looking for a central jumping-off place from which we could explore several area state parks. Both times, Yakima Sportsman filled the bill.

The local wake-up crew

We arrived late on a spring weekend to find a crowded campground and a somewhat messy campsite. Setting up the tent, I remembered a few things from my earlier visit. First, this park is billed as an “oasis in the desert,” and that lush green comes from multiple sprinklers, which form a liquid gauntlet for walkers and require careful tent siting. Second, don’t expect private sites. RVs are lined up around several loops, and tents around the grassy edge. There are some trees and shrubs, but this is a utilitarian campground, one that seems built for people planning to spend  most of their day elsewhere. Lastly, the campground is near the eastern edge of the park, and the tent sites back up to a truck transport parking lot. So there’s some road noise, but, as I recalled at 4:00 a.m., it’s actually the nearby roosters that ensure campers awaken early. In my notebook, ROOSTERS is written in all caps and underlined. Tent campers, consider yourself warned.

A beautiful morning greeted us, puffy clouds drifting lazily across a desert-blue sky. Mr. Adventure got up to make the coffee, and… “I think our kid used all the gas in the canisters,” he said sadly. We drove out to get coffee, brought it back, and drank it at a picnic table in the day-use area of the park.

Green lawns with big, shady trees and picnic tables spread out behind us. Nibbling on muffins, we gazed over a large pond and realized we could see someone on the opposite side. That meant a trail. “Let’s go!” 

Two lakes

Cool Lake is placid and peaceful, ringed by leafy trees and filled with lily pads. We passed a beaver dam and reached the far side, enjoying the quiet, when a tenacious mallard accosted us, waddling right up to our legs in search of a handout. “You’ve picked the wrong people,” I told the duck as we edged around. He followed us for a while, then spotted a father and two young boys and switched attention. The pond is stocked and fishing is popular. 

Plenty of ducks paddled around the lake, redwing blackbirds sang from the reeds, and a large turtle sunned on a partially submerged log. I’d seen turtles on my earlier trip, too. That time, the lack of foliage in late March made them easier to spot.

Coming around to our starting point, we saw another trail, for the Juan A. Alvarez Outdoor Living Classroom, and followed it to Duck Lake, where we saw no ducks but plenty of cattails and songbirds. An interpretive sign listed the butterflies, dragonflies, and moths found in the area. A bench at the end of the accessible trail is a nice place to sit and watch the wetland wildlife. Both lakes are the result of gravel quarries that predated the park, although early pictures show hillocks of gravel awaiting removal.

The Yakima River

The ponds are in the day-use part of the park. The campground and RV loops are just to the south, a short walk on the park road. To the west of both these areas is the Yakima River, with  plenty of trails and a wilder feel. A wide gravel road atop a river levee runs the length of the park and beyond.

We saw four mama wood ducks and what looked like at least a couple dozen ducklings paddling in Levy Pond just off the trail, then walked to the park’s northern boundary before turning around and veering off into the wooded flood plain below. Part of an ecosystem restoration project, this area becomes several islands separated by streams and rivulets when the water is high. It’s humid, crowded with willow trees, and home to abundant mosquitoes. After bushwhacking through a particularly overgrown area, I said, “I’m done. I’m heading back up to the main trail.” Mr. Adventure, impervious as ever to any discomfort, pushed a bit farther before giving up.

The Levee Trail

Back on the main trail, we walked south past the park’s southern edge and on to where the levee trail ended at Highway 24. By crossing the bridge, visitors can join the Yakima Greenway, a 20-mile paved trail that runs along the river from Naches to Union Gap, passing several parks, playgrounds, and event spaces.

Heading back to the park, we stopped to enjoy the view of the river from one of several benches. Land here is a mix of county, state, and federal management, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers overseeing the levees we walked upon. Built in 1948 to protect the cities of Yakima and Terrace Heights from flooding, the levees have been raised several times in the ensuing decades. From about 1955 to 1970, State Parks issued grazing leases for local ranchers to run sheep on the larger floodplain islands, which likely made for unexpected encounters for some park visitors.

Park origins 

The park is a legacy of the Yakima Sportsmen’s Association, which acquired 157 acres around Cool and Duck lakes and along the river, then in 1945 gave it to Yakima County for use as a park. The county couldn’t afford to develop it and gave to the state in November of that year. Another 50 acres were added in the early 1960s, and 40 more in the early 1980s. Small purchases since then have brought the park size to 266 acres, plenty of room for day-use visitors and overnight campers.

Early on, the county wanted to name the park Sportsmens Memorial Park to honor local soldiers lost in World War II — “our boys who aren’t going hunting and fishing anymore” — but some county leaders thought the name was too long, so they dropped “Memorial” but added “Yakima” in 1950. When Interstate 82 was built in the early 1960s, confusion over the spelling and punctuation of “Sportsmens” led the Highway Commission to post signs for Yakima State Park, which was shorter and fit more easily on roadside signs. The county asked that “Sportsmens” be re-included in the name, and eventually the State Parks Commission settled on the current name, Yakima Sportsman State Park. The moniker has the advantage of not needing punctuation or plural forms. 

Picnic shelter

Back in the day-use area, we came across what is assuredly one of the best midcentury modern kitchen shelters in the entire state park system. Built of concrete block and featuring a subtle butterfly roof and a concrete pad poured to match the roofline, it includes a soot-blackened fireplace and large ceiling beams. It’s set perfectly among shady trees off the park road. I wish I knew who designed it. What a treasure!

Local oasis, traveler’s haven

When Yakima Sportsman State Park was established, Interstate 82 didn’t exist. Highway 97 ran north-south between the city of Yakima, population about 35,000 in 1945, and the river. The first part of the new interstate through Yakima, just two miles long and running past the park, opened in 1963. Two more miles between Yakima and Union Gap to the south opened in 1965, and four miles between Yakima and Selah to the north opened in 1967. It truly was a local park.

Today, Yakima Sportsman’s location makes it perfect for locals seeking quiet trails and freshwater fishing and for travelers like us, who set up a comfortable base camp there to enjoy a couple of nights under the stars with easy access to urban amenities.

Fast Facts about Yakima Sportsman State Park

• 266-acre camping park, open year-round, seasonal camping
• Discover Pass required, $10 daily or, for a very reasonable $30, purchase an annual pass
• 37 standard campsites, 37 full-hookup sites, reservable online or by calling 888-CAMPOUT
• dump station, ADA-accessible restrooms and showers
• picnic tables, grills, kitchen shelter (reservable), roofed shelters
• playground, volleyball courts, horseshoe pits
• hiking along the Yakima River, bird watching, wildlife viewing
• outdoor classroom and interpretive signage
• freshwater fishing (license required)
• park brochure
• park map

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Land Acknowledgment

Yakima Sportsman State Park occupies the traditional lands of the Yakama people, who have lived, traded, and travelled here since time immemorial. In 1855, the Yakama and thirteen area tribes signed a treaty with the United States government ceding 10 million acres of their homeland in return for a reservation of about 1.25 million acres and other rights. Although the terms of the treaty stipulated that the ceded lands could not be opened to white settlement for two years, territorial governor Isaac Stevens declared the lands open for settlement less than a month after signing and several years before the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty. The Yakamas and other tribes went to war to oppose this betrayal until open hostilities ended in 1859, although disputes about encroachments on reservation land contained well into the twentieth century. Today the reservation and the Yakima Valley are home to the Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation, which has more than 30,000 members.

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