Links & Resources

Countywide Efforts


The linkage of rural Yakima County and the cities and towns through pathways, trails, and/or bike lanes has been widely discussed. Yakima County’s 20-Year Comprehensive Plan (Plan 2015) and the 2008 Yakima County Trails Plan consider the creation of pathway and open space park areas as vital to the quality of life of the county. Local, regional, and statewide efforts to enhance pedestrian and bicycle travel are being addressed by individuals, groups like DRYVE and TRANS-Action, and local governments that one day could link Naches to Grandview and White Swan to Moxee.
Bridge Construction Project

Active Trail Efforts


  • Centennial 2013 Plan: Celebrating the 100th Birthday of the state’s Park System, the plan aims to improve and/or expand existing state parks and trails
  • City of Yakima Parks & Trials: The City of Yakima maintains a variety of parks, pathways and bike lanes throughout the city and accessible to the Yakima Greenway. Yakima’s Central Business District recently went though a major rehabilitation of its sidewalk system along Yakima Avenue.
  • Cowiche Canyon Trail: A 5 mile canyon-mountain trail west of Yakima highlights indigenous plant life and views of the Upper Yakima Valley.
  • Ice Age Flood Trail: In stages of the last several ice ages, an ice dam in present day Montana held back a glacial lake comparable to some of today’s Great Lakes. Occasional cataclysmic floods breached this dam and scoured out the landscape of large sections of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, including the valleys and hills of the Yakima Valley. The Ice Age Flood Trail will highlight geographic features on existing public lands.
  • Lower Yakima Trail: Connecting the Cities of Sunnyside, Grandview and Prosser, this paved trail parallels the Gibbon-Granger Short line Railroad.
  • Toppenish Mural Trail: Walk around town and view over 70 mural depicting the history, culture, and people of the Yakima Valley.
  • William O. Douglas Trail: Yakima’s own United State’s Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas regularly hiked from his home in Yakima to Mount Rainier to strengthen his body following a childhood disease. This 75 mile trail follows actual routes traveled by the young Mr. Douglas and existing public trails.
  • Yakima County Trails Plan (PDF): Updated and adopted in 2020, this plan addresses pathway and trail alternatives throughout Yakima County.
  • Yakima Greenway: Long the backbone of Pathway efforts in Yakima County, the Yakima Greenway has historically extended from Union Gap to 40th Ave. and Fruitvale Blvd. in northeast Yakima, along the Yakima and Naches Rivers. In 2006, Yakima County secured the former Naches Rail Line in partnership with the Yakima Greenway Foundation and the City of Naches began developing the "Naches Rail-to-Trail" which converted over 10 miles of rail line into a 10+ mile trail extension from the Greenway's 40th Ave. Terminus to the Naches Train Depot, creating a 20 mile pedestrian/bicycle trail that connects the Cities of Union Gap, Yakima, Selah and Naches.