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The gentle Yakima River winds for 27 miles through massive basalt cliffs and rolling desert hills between Ellensburg and Yakima, Washington. This area is popular for wildlife viewing, fishing, and floating the river.
Recreation
The Yakima River Canyon is a popular destination for plant and wildlife viewing, including bighorn sheep, various birds of prey, and mule deer. This section of the river is classified as a Blue Ribbon trout stream, but is catch and release only. One of the most popular summer activities is floating the river, which is a family friendly Class 1 river with no rapids. Rafters often put in at Umtanum and take out at Roza.
Facilities
All four BLM-managed recreation sites offer picnic tables, fire rings, nearby dumpsters and vault toilets. Hookups and potable water are not provided. Big Pines campground is where the majority of the campsites are located, and contains two group campsites. Umtanum, Lmuma Creek, and Roza also offer campsites. Umtanum and Roza receive high day-use visitation during the summer months. Roza offers a concrete boat launch. Motorboats are prohibited upstream from Roza.
From Ellensburg, Washington, take Hwy 821 (Canyon Road) south through the Yakima River Canyon. Big Pines is located at milepost 10.
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/250985?tab=seasons
Too windy for tent camping the weekend we were there. Great hiking nearby, so that was good. We had heavy duty stakes for our tent and utilized all the rocks to hold our tent in place. The wind gusts were so strong, dirt was blown up the sides of our tent and right through the mesh portions. The camp is right along the Yakima river, so if you want to tube or kayak it's perfect. There are vault toilets, no hand sanitizer or water. If you have an RV or camp trailer, that's probably the best option for staying here.
Very basic campground with vault toilets (clean, well-ventilated, and well-lit at night). We came before reservation season (mid-late April) so first come first serve. We arrived around 10 AM and there were quite a few spots to choose from. Only a couple spots have shade, but since we have an awning on our camper, it was not a problem. The sites are all very level. Train track across the river, so the train came through ever so often. The site is also just by the highway, so there is some traffic sound, but not too bad. A couple of trails close to the campground.
Very beautiful. Lake next to camp, 5 or so spots, descent pricing. It's very cold (got down to 23° first night) but it's also end of February.
Acceptabe, serviced toilet facilities. Very clean sites with this excetion - a BLM embarrassment. The dedicated 'host' campsite, which is intermitently occupied, looks like a sqatters camp under a bridge. There is no excuse, and the site is a horrible example for other campers. Understood that the options are slim, but set higher standards or give them a pat on the back.
I've been here a couple times now and it's a pretty nice spot. Finding a flat place for a tent when only the first section of the campground is open is a little difficult but I look forward to being able to check out the actual tent sites. My only complaint is the trains at night are loud as heck, but otherwise it's pretty nice. Feels safer than any of the other campgrounds on this strip of the river. For a solo female traveler this was the only one I felt comfortable staying at. It's big enough that there's always more people but you can be spread out from them if it's not busy. And the campsites are back from the parking lot so people aren't just driving through. Not a ton of trees around but for desert camping you can't complain too much!
