Day Trips

Over the last labor day weekend, my wife and I traveled to the Naches River on the East side of Mt Rainier just beyond Chinook Pass.  We spent two nights camping at the Cottonwood NFS campground.   Being on the dry side of the mountain range provided us with magnificient weather and clear blue skies.

Cottonwood is a great little campground with secluded campsites set directly against the Naches River.  The campground is small and near the highway but traffic light and the small nature of the facility makes things more of a community.  Don't expect high brow services...pit toilets, but there is a service area with stores, laundry, and showers one mile away.

We travelled to the Naches to experience some fly fishing for trout.  I run a business building custom fly rods ( http://www.flycatcherinc.com) called Flycatcher.  This gave us an excuse to go test out some of the rods.

The Naches turned out to be a great little trout stream.  It is immensely wade-able for it's length with some nice riffles and pocket water.  At the same time it is not near any populated areas which meant that usage was light.  The river runs 30 to 40 ft wide and is created by the confluence of the American River and the Little Naches.  Further downstream the Tieton River feeds into the Naches bringing glacial silt and poor fishing conditions.  The Naches finally feeds into the Yakima River in the city of Yakima.

Give yourself a treat and check out this river.