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Naches Historical Trail
Oh man, this trail had been somewhere on my list of places to check out for over a year now, but I hadn't quite gotten to it. After plans to visit another trail got postponed by wildfires, this one popped back up in my searches and once I saw pictures of that sign, I knew I had to check it out.
This trail picked up my interest long ago for its high difficulty rating, and I'm a sucker for cool historical spots, so I decided this was the perfect "Trial-By-Fire" challenge for my PowerTrax locker. I certainly wasn't let down, and this trail threw several obstacles at me that I could not have passed without winching pre-locker, as well as lots of stuff that the locker just made a smoother more enjoyable experience.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to finish the entire trail, it's a long drive back to DRM HQ from this trail, but the nine or so miles of the twelve-ish mile trail that I
did get to run had steeper climbs than my TJ had ever seen, mud puddles almost up to my tub even as dry as it was, narrow mud ditches with walls up to my windows, about a
million off-camber areas that really wanted to ram my mirrors into everything that can be found on a trail, fun little wooden bridges, ledges, beautiful views and much much
more. Naches trail is an absolutely beautiful trail and I will absolutely be returning and showing this place off to others.
It's a little hard to tell, but the second photo
is a decent ledge drop-off, you can't quite see the trail over the hood, and I smacked my hitch pretty good coming down off of it.
The new locker made this trail pretty easy, it had steep hill climbs I would have spun out on before, as well as ledges, rocks, and bridges I would have at least had difficulty climbing over, and the TJ now just climbs over them at near-idle, so I'll have to go back when it's muddier and find some new limits to push it to.
Even with the Jeep doing phenomenal, this trail is a great way to dull the senses to sharp inclines and off-camber areas, as there are at least two quite tall very steep climbs, and about 45% of the time on the trail is spent on sharp off-camber areas. My passenger/cameraman who went with me is not particularly fond of the feeling of being on angles like that, and will probably reconsider riding along the next time we go.
Despite the difficult obstacles, there are a lot of different starting points for this trail, and bypasses for most of the hardest obstacles, so don't let the difficulty disuade you too much, this trail has something to offer everyone.
If you can find a moment on the trail where your mind isn't completely distracted by that tree just a half inch away from eating one of your mirrors, or aiming your tire right into that gap between those two rocks that you swear your tire will just fit through, it's really crazy to think about the wagons that would have had to climb these same hills and face much the same sort of obstacles. It was a nerveracking three hour ordeal in the Jeep, I can't imagine spending an entire week navigating a wagon through this terrain. It really is an amazing trail with a wonderful history, and I had a great time.
Moving away from the off-road bit of the trail, here's some of those beautiful mountain views I mentioned earlier:
There were also some amazing views of Mt. Rainier on the drive to the trail, but I didn't get any pictures. There's also an old cabin somewhere near the trail that is apparently open to the public which I was really hoping to take a look at, but either we didn't get that far, or I just completely missed it. I had meant to print out or download a map, but by the time I remembered we were out of service. Next time we'll go back and see the last few miles of trail and make sure to see the cabin.
If camping's more your thing, there were all sorts of disperesed camping sites in the area, some had great views, some were even on top of fun steep off-road-ish trails too
That's about all I have to say about this trail right now, but I'm sure I'll come back, probably with more Jeeps and more people. If you ever find yourself out in this area, or want to plan a trip, this is a great trail to add to your plan, all the things you can see and try won't let you down.
Thanks for reading! -Dirt Road
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