Yakima Canyon Resort

[Jim]

Rats! Is this the funky little campground where you used to be able to rent a fishing raft, the guy would trailer it and you to the upper reach, and then you had to just float and fish you're way back? This is a big drag.

 

Construction is set to start this month at a fly-fishing-themed private get-away called Canyon River Ranch in the Yakima Canyon.

The 68-acre site has been a campground and the home of Red's Fly Shop, a combination fishing store, boat rental business and guide service.

 

When completed in 2008, the private resort will have nine cabins, a lodge with communal ownership, a vineyard, an outdoor hot tub and pool, and a new building for Red's Fly Shop with a deli and wine shop. The property is midway down the 31-mile canyon that meanders along the west side of U.S. 97 from Ellensburg to Yakima. It's 13 miles from Ellensburg and 18 miles from Yakima.

 

Mithun is the architect for the $10 million project. MF Williams is the general contractor. Previous owners Red and Marlene Blackenship decided to sell the property to Richard Leider, Dr. Anthony Robins and Steve Joyce in 2002. Leider is a Bellevue-based real estate consultant. Robins is an orthopedic surgeon whose wife is a childhood friend of Leider's wife. That connection brought the two men together to fly fish with Joyce, Robins' nephew.

 

 

[Seahawks]

Rats! Is this the funky little campground where you used to be able to rent a fishing raft, the guy would trailer it and you to the upper reach, and then you had to just float and fish you're way back? This is a big drag.

 

Construction is set to start this month at a fly-fishing-themed private get-away called Canyon River Ranch in the Yakima Canyon.

The 68-acre site has been a campground and the home of Red's Fly Shop, a combination fishing store, boat rental business and guide service.

 

When completed in 2008, the private resort will have nine cabins, a lodge with communal ownership, a vineyard, an outdoor hot tub and pool, and a new building for Red's Fly Shop with a deli and wine shop. The property is midway down the 31-mile canyon that meanders along the west side of U.S. 97 from Ellensburg to Yakima. It's 13 miles from Ellensburg and 18 miles from Yakima.

 

Mithun is the architect for the $10 million project. MF Williams is the general contractor. Previous owners Red and Marlene Blackenship decided to sell the property to Richard Leider, Dr. Anthony Robins and Steve Joyce in 2002. Leider is a Bellevue-based real estate consultant. Robins is an orthopedic surgeon whose wife is a childhood friend of Leider's wife. That connection brought the two men together to fly fish with Joyce, Robins' nephew.

 

 

I saw that driving by it. It totally sucks. They ought too stop all the building in the Canyon. Last 15 years way to much. Just ruins the beauty of that place.

[JayB]

Straight downhill since "A River Ran Through It." Bummer. Love that river/canyon.

 

 

 

[Seahawks]

Straight downhill since "A River Ran Through It." Bummer. Love that river/canyon.

 

 

 

Dad took us down the Yakima rafting when I was like 10. Loved fishing ever since. That Canyon is very beautiful. I hate all the new homes being built in it. They should make it a place where no building can be done. Some good Chuckar hunting there too. Hiked within 20 yards of one of those huge long horn rams over there, when I came over a ridge. sucker must ran 2 miles straight, amazing.

[thatguy]

I've been claiming this for many years now. That film single handedly destroyed many of my favorite haunts. Saddens me to count the $ I've invested in fly gear that now sits idle. I used to fish rivers in BC where I would see a guide once every two years. Before I quit fishing BC nearly every local had bought a raft and become a guide. Then they'd get pissed when I beat them and their dudes to the launches. Way it goes I guess always something else out there to try.

[ryland_moore]

Yup. That is Red's place. i camp there (or used to, not this year!)every year and take my drift boat. Easy o trailer your baot up and drift back to camp. great fly-fishing for rainbows on that River. Like the Deschutes but less crowded -still.

 

Actually one of the architects is a long-time poster on cc.com! There is a ton of development, tha is true, but being so close to Seattle, what did you expect?

[Seahawks]

Yup. That is Red's place. i camp there (or used to, not this year!)every year and take my drift boat. Easy o trailer your baot up and drift back to camp. great fly-fishing for rainbows on that River. Like the Deschutes but less crowded -still.

 

Actually one of the architects is a long-time poster on cc.com! There is a ton of development, tha is true, but being so close to Seattle, what did you expect?

 

Just wish they would save the area like Rainer as a Washington State Treasure. Its a pretty cool place.

[JayB]

I've been claiming this for many years now. That film single handedly destroyed many of my favorite haunts. Saddens me to count the $ I've invested in fly gear that now sits idle. I used to fish rivers in BC where I would see a guide once every two years. Before I quit fishing BC nearly every local had bought a raft and become a guide. Then they'd get pissed when I beat them and their dudes to the launches. Way it goes I guess always something else out there to try.

 

Pretty much put most of Montana in the shitter as well.

 

I can remember a scout trip that took us through Yellowstone and the Tetons in the mid-80's when Montana hadn't yet begun to suffer from the tantric-midlife-crisis-emeliorating-zen-state-via-flyfishing vibe . One of the grownups brought along a list of humorous questions that he read aloud to the van full of scouts in order to pass the time during the long stretches of driving. The one question I remember was "Would you rather spend all of eternity in the seventh level of hell or Bozeman, Montana?" We'd just passed through Bozeman, and that country looked like heaven to me at the time. I can remember being both simultaneously puzzled and relieved by the question. Puzzled that anyone would chose Bozeman over, say, Jersey City - for that designation and relieved that the average person in the US would recoil in horror at the prospect of spending time in, much living in most of the places that I loved in the West.

 

Not quite how things turned out.