Snow Mountain Ranch is a 6.2 mile moderately trafficked loop trail located near Cowiche, Washington that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from March until November. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
Managed by the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy, this hiking loop offers spectacular views of the Yakima Valley and Washington's central Cascades. Starting out at the Snow Mountain Ranch Trailhead (0.0 miles), take a picture of the map at the kiosk and then set out on the Cowiche Mountain Loop by heading towards Cowiche Creek and crossing the bridge. Then follow signs for Cowiche Mountain Trail West. This combination double-and singletrack trail will take you up through a ravine above Cowiche Creek on a moderate slope onto a shrub-steppe landscape where your views will be expansive and you'll get a view of Cowiche Mountain above. The moderate angle will increase as you gain more elevation until about 0.5 mile from the summit, where you'll bear east on a gentle rise towards the summit tower. Along the way, much of the singletrack trail is lined with wildflowers: grass widows and desert-parsleys early in the season followed by balsamroot, lupine, phlox and fields of big-headed clover. Look out West into the Cowiche Basin and you'll spot elk herds in the distance. Once you reach the top (3.0 miles), take a break at the bench near the junction of Cowiche Mountain East & Cowiche Mountain West trails, and soak in the views of Mt Adams, Cleman Ridge, and the Ahtanum Valley. Experienced trail runners may want to continue east past the tower on the Connector trail and explore the nearby Rocky Top Trail system, which adds a 4 to 10 mile loop option with return to the same bench here at the Summit . To return to the Snow Mountain Ranch trailhead, follow the Cowiche Mountain East trail back towards Cowiche Creek and turn west onto the Riparian Trail (5.2 miles) for a shady retreat along the creek.
January 26, 2021
December 13, 2020Nicely well maintained trail system. Took the loop going counter clockwise. Logged ~1,300ft elevation gain in 3 miles. Took the trail to the a bit further to the point out on the east side with the rock pile just for the view. With that little detour attached I logged exactly 7 miles. There’s no shade but very nice right now with the colder weather on a sunny day. Bit windy at the top since you’re basically fully exposed but not too bad just Bring an extra layer. Plenty of room to maintain social distancing along the entire route. Happy holidays everyone:)
November 21, 2020October 31, 2020October 10, 2020September 7, 2020June 19, 2020Another nice local hike
May 21, 2020A few ticks. Some wildflowers blooming still. Great sunrise!
May 14, 2020Great ...summer watch out Snake
May 2, 2020A beautiful hike in the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy lands. This time of year there were beautiful wildflowers abounding! Purples, pinks, orange and yellow all bursting into life!
April 24, 2020Great place to wander for miles with great views
April 16, 2020Pretty good hike, steep in some areas to get to the top and down. Poles may help but over all great 7 miles hike!
April 11, 2020Awesome hike, went up cowiche mountain trail west and stopped for a snack at the top while enjoying the view of the mountain. Pack a light jacket or sweater, the wind at the top was chilling. Headed back down the loop on cowiche mountain trail East. Overall, a great time.
April 7, 2020This is a fun hike. Nice weather. Went with the family and dog friendly.
March 28, 2020March 25, 2020March 8, 2020Good
February 22, 2020great walk, full sun no trees, enjoyed the view
January 6, 2020This was a nice trail and there are some short, add-on trails that can be done as well. The trail has been re-engineered, so the majority of the east side of the loop is inaccurate in the All Trails app. The trail is well marked, so this shouldn’t matter.
January 5, 2020We did this hike January 4th and it was a little muddy in a couple places , but certainly not impassable. Probably 2/3 - 3/4 of the way up the wind picked up and it was arctic, but this January in the PNW so that’s not unexpected and the beautiful skies made up for it!! The views from maybe the 1 mile point on are fantastic. The best part of doing this trail in the dead of winter (for me anyway) NO SNAKES!
November 16, 2019They moved the trail, and the map isn't accurate on the east side. Nothing changed of significance though. Good views, nice easy walk.
November 12, 20194 of us hiked up to the top of snow mountain today. It was perfect weather about 50ﾟ and blue sky. It's a slow incline. At the top you can see The Valley on both sides. Take a walking stick if you have bad knees because it's steep going down. The trail is well used and easy to see. It's a great family trail and can give you a good 3 hours of exercise for the day.
August 19, 2019when I went there were plenty of wildflowers still growing. Lots of quail down by the creek. Hiked to the top of Cowiche Mountain trail hoping for a spectacular view, but wasn't too impressed... it was just overlooking farms and orchards.
May 26, 2019comfortable，great view
May 22, 2019Was actually a little over 6 miles. I turned my tracker off
May 12, 2019Much nicer than expected. All the wildflowers were still out. Saw two owls. Great family Mother’s Day hike. Couldn’t have asked for a better hike. Will probably trail run out here another day this summer.
