Trail Etiquette

• Stay on established trails
• Be careful not to damage flora, fauna, or landscape
• Respect other trail users
• Respect private property
• Watch out for rattlesnakes
• Do not harass wildlife - including rattlesnakes
• Leave no trace behind. Please take out what you take in.
• No open fires

Hiking Badger Mt. in Winter

In December, 2012, Trailmaster Jim Langdon was interviewed on a local radio station, and had these tips for hiking in winter.

With winter now in full bloom, here are a few hints for hiking Badger Mt. when there's snow and ice.

1. The trails were not designed and are not maintained for use in the winter. That doesn't mean they are closed, just that you are hiking or riding at your own risk. Remember that Badger Mt. is a hill and the trails all have considerable slope when there are icy conditions.
2. Use the Skyline Trail out of the Westgate parking lot (off Dallas Road). This trail gets less snow because the wind tends to blow it off. It will also get a good dose of whatever sun there is, and will melt clear long before the Canyon Trail does. Parts of the Canyon Trail will not even see the sun in the winter.
3. There are things you can bring to help, such as hiking poles and the grippers you strap to the soles of your boots. These are available in the local sporting goods stores.
4. If the roads are icy, the trails will be, too. Come prepared.
5. There is a barrel with sand in it at the start of the Canyon Trail steps. However, if you need the sand at that point, you can bet that the rest of the trail will be slick, too.
6. When the spring thaw comes, the trail will get muddy in places. That's because although the ground has thawed the first couple of inches, there is still frozen earth below that. The snow and ice that melts has no place to soak in. Please don't walk out of the trail to avoid the mud, it will be there, too.

Access Points and Trails shown below (updated January, 2011).
For a much larger view, try this JPEG (0.7 MB) or, for a page-sized version to print, try this PDF (0.5 MB).

Location of Badger Mountain Trailheads in Benton County, Washington
(Click on map for larger image in another window)

Skyline Trail - 2.9 miles (hikers, mountain bikers, horse riders)
5305 East 210 PR NE, Richland, WA (which is also the main address for the Badger Mt Preserve)

• Directions: Take Keene Rd west to Kennedy Rd. Turn left on Kennedy and take it to Dallas Rd. Turn left on Dallas. Go under I-182 overpass and continue to the top of hill.
• Turn left to a parking area up the gravel road and to the right maybe 0.1 mile. See entry photo1, and photo2
• The trail starts out from this parking area.

Canyon Trail - 1.3 miles (hikers)
525 Queensgate Dr, Richland, WA (this address marks Trailhead Park)

• Directions: Take Keene Rd to Shockley Rd (near Bethel Church), turn right. Take Shockley to the end, where you turn left on Queensgate Dr, and go up the hill to the stop sign, where you turn right on White Bluffs St, and then a left into....
• The parking lot next to the cinder block pump house. From there, follow the trail around Trailhead Park to the base of the mountain and the trailhead.

Sagebrush Trail - 1.0 mile (hikers, mountain bikers, horse riders)

• This trail connects with the Canyon Trail near the top of the steps, above Trailhead Park.
• The other end of the Sagebrush Trail connects with the east end of the Skyline Trail.

See WTA article from the November/December issue about our trailbuilding effort.

See 2005 and 2006 photos of our trailbuilding efforts.

Have any trail questions or comments? Want something improved or fixed? Give me a call (943-3992) or drop me an email to Jim.

Master Plan

Benton County is undertaking a master planning process for parks and open space. For more information on Benton County’s master planning process, contact Adam Fyall, Community Development Coordinator, Benton County Commissioners' Office, 509-736-3053.

The first phase of acquisition of Badger Mountain is complete. Additional phases are being discussed. Thanks to all who donated, volunteered, wrote letters, or helped in other ways.

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Access and Trails

Badger Mountain trails are open to the public for muscle-powered sports. One trail built in the fall of 2005 is for hikers only. A second trail built in the fall of 2006 is for hikers, mountain bikers and horse back riders. No motorized vehicles are allowed.

Trail Strategy

Benton County hosted meetings with user groups and the public over the fall, winter and spring of 2007-2008 to get input for a master long range plan for the Badger Mountain Centennial Preserve, as well as parks and open space in the County in general. The plan is expected to be completed in the fall of 2008.

 
Here's a local Web site, Hike Tri-Cities, that lists a wonderful assortment of hiking opportunties in the Tri-Cities area, including Badger Mountain.
 

Almost a half-million hikers were counted since April, 2008

Hikers on Badger Mountain rarely find themselves alone, and they might wonder just how many people take to the trails each year. Now we know. The electronic counters at the base of both the Canyon Trail and the Skyline Trail showed that over 227,000 hikers passed by from Apil 2008 through the end of 2010, and 170,000 were counted in 2012 alone. You can see the specifics here. These do seem like astronomical numbers, and that's surely one measure of success for the Badger Mountain Preserve.

Flowers of Badger Mt Brochure (new version as of Oct. 2012)

Check out our gorgeous new two-page brochure that shows the flowering plants on Badger Mt. in bloom-sequence time. Click the image to download the PDF file (4 MB)

Many thanks to friends of Badger Mountain Max Conner and Keith Abel for the photos and to Ann Roberts and Max for their efforts in producing this brochure.