New Trail Opens on Badger Mountain

Hikers at the Badger Mountain Centennial Preserve, a 650-acre park in Richland, will be able to enjoy a new trail at the preserve as of noon today.

Volunteers make it happen

Thanks to hardworking volunteers, a grant from REI and Friends of Badger Mountain, a nonprofit organization based in Richland, the new trail was dedicated less than a year after work began. More than 400 volunteers moved 1,000 yards of dirt and laid more than 290 tons of gravel over the course of the project. Longtime WTA volunteer Jim Langdon was heavily involved in the project as trailmaster, logging 475 hours of work on the new trail.

Trails offers new opportunities

Unlike the other three trails in the preserve, which are relatively steep, the new 2.5-mile route rolls gently from its beginning off the Skyline trail to its end near Trailhead Park off the Sagebrush trail, making it the second-longest trail on the Preserve, about six miles roundtrip. Along the way, hikers traverse the lower south face of the mountain with no significant elevation gain or loss along the way, maintaining a distance of at least 200 feet from a large apple orchard nearby.

Name the new trail!

Those who attended the opening ceremony got to take a tour of the new trail. Some of the hikers may have been scouting for inspiration; the new trail is not yet named, and Benton County is looking for name ideas from the public. The Park Board will select a name later in February or March. Suggested names should be one word, no more than 10 characters in length, and easy to pronounce and recognize.

>> Read more about the newest trail on Badger Mountain in WTA's Hiking Guide.

_____________________________________________

More about the project

• Tri-City Herald article
• Union Bulletin article
• Got a name suggestion for the new trail? To submit it, email parks@co.benton.wa.us. Suggested names should be one word that’s 10 characters or shorter and are easy to pronounce and recognize.