It was going to be 84 degrees in Seattle. About the same east of Cascades. The warmest day of the year so far. No escaping the heat on the west side. Janet and I decided to head east for a wildflower hike. I had done this hike one time. Janet had hiked it a number of times. It does provide some great wildflowers in the spring. Starting at 2000' and going up to 4300' there are a number of zones with different flowers in bloom. We headed out early meeting in Bellevue at 6:30 am. A quick stop in Cle Elum then exiting I-90 near Ellensburg. We did a driving loop for the day. Going we went down Canyon Road to Selah and then on to Black Canyon. We returned via Umptanum Road to the same freeway cloverleaf. It was 9:30 when we parked and started hiking. The dirt road up the canyon goes 1.3 miles to the end. We drove .3 and walked the road for one mile. There is a gate at .5 miles with some parking. Higher clearance cars did make it to the end of the road. A determined driver could get many sedans there. By walking the road we did see a number of wildflowers that drivers missed.

It was already getting warm at 9:30 the road walk took us by lots of balsamroot, lupine, and phlox plus a number of other flowers. At the end of the road there is a berm and the old road continues up the canyon. Open meadows turn to canyon where driving ends. There is still some water in the creek. Prime snake terrain. My previous visit was three weeks earlier in 2008. The flowers were much farther along this time. Balsamroot, lupine, and phlox continued and now we saw bluebells, larkspur, and prairie star. At 2.4 miles, 1.4 miles from the road end, we reached the old cabin. It is still standing. A good time for a break. Some shade was appreciated too. There was a cool breeze blowing. It continued nearly all day. That made for a much more comfortable day.

Farther along Janet thought we were near a patch of shooting stars. We went just off road and found... a huge patch of them. Some grass widows, many spring beauty, and a lot of shooting stars. All those flowers were right at their peak. The road is open to vehicles a little way above the cabin. To my surprise two jeeps passed us going downhill. We also passed two hikers coming down. The grade steepens as the ridge top nears. Lots more flowers near the ridge. The wind really picked up. I went from uncomfortably hot to a little cool. Very nice. At the ridge we could see out to the Stuart Range and down to Ellensburg on the other side of the ridge. Mt. Rainier came out too.

Last time we turned left and followed the ridge for some distance before going cross country down to another road that completed a loop back to our uphill road. This time we turned right. The road climbed steeply. We found a number of very large big headed clover. Some white and some reddish. An old spur turned right and headed to a high point. The road is signed for no motorized vehicles. The main road goes up and down and can be seen for a long distance. We had a strong tail wind pushing us uphill. The view was even better at the top. Three hundred sixty degrees with nothing to block our view. Add the top of Mt. Adams to the other peaks.

We managed to get out of most of the wind and enjoy our stay on top. The GPS logged 5 miles to our 4300' perch. Only a few small trees survive on the summit. There were a few blooming balsamroot. Time for the rest of our lunch as we hunkered down out of most of the wind. It was only about 1:15 when we headed down. I had my hat tightened trying to keep it from sailing away. We dropped back to where we first reached the ridge for a final look at the views. Rainier, Stuart, Ellensburg, Selah, and more. As we dropped off the ridge the wind died down and the temperature seemed to go up by about 20 degrees. Thankfully there was some cool breeze all the way down.

As usually happens, the trip down seemed a few miles longer than the hike up. Many fewer photos on the descent. We did take another break at the cabin. We did see a couple groups heading up as we came out. At the end of the drivable road we found two SUVs. As we ambled down the road I heard a loud "hissss' and Janet moved quickly and then pointed out a rattlesnake right at the edge of the road. I have it a wide berth. It was in strike mode. Maybe it would not be such a good idea to wanter into the sagebrush for more photos... Only the second rattler sighting I've had in 31 years of hiking. It was plenty hot when we reached the car.

My second visit to Black Canyon was much different than my first. No snow and later season flowers this time. The wildflower show was better than I was expecting. The lack of other hikers was surprising. A sunny spring day and only a handful of other hikers with all those wildflowers in bloom. An easy 10 miles with 2300' of gain. Thanks to the breeze it was not too hot though it turned out to be a warm afternoon. It is a long drive from the Seattle area but well worth it when the wildflowers are putting on a show.

I have posted 30 annotated photos on my website located at: http://www.hikingnorthwest.com. Go to "Trips - 2013" on the left margin.

This is a great desert hike. Finding the trailhead was straight forward since I have been to this one before, but the directions in the above description are accurate. It took me about 2 Hours from Sought Bellevue. When I arrived at 8:30, there was 1 car parked in the main trail head parking. I decided not to drive the car inside onto the trail head, but rather walk since the road was rough and rocky (extra 1 mile). I haven't encountered a single hiker all along, but only 2 parties of off-road vehicle on my way back.

At around 9:30AM, I arrived to the famous old cabin, took a quick break and continued. I made it to the top at around 10:40. I had a quick snack and enjoyed the beautiful 360 degrees views of the valley, surrounding mountains, north cascade snow packed, and jigged peaks. As expected, it was bare and a little windy at the top. Started hiking back around 10:50. I made few stops on the way back and got back to my car at around 12:35PM.

Overall, this is a great hiking spot. I enjoyed the great views, the landscape and all the blooming wild flowers. If you're looking for a solitude type hike with a decent workout; this is one of the best in the area. Make sure you bring enough water as it is mostly exposed and there aren't any good water sources that I could see; also bring a lot of sunscreen.

This is also a great off-road trail which I plan to try out next time.

I led a large group of Cascadians up Black Canyon today. We started walking at the elk fence, though with careful driving one could drive all the way to the mouth of the canyon. It was mostly cloudy & cool as we started. There were lots of wildflowers from top to bottom - Balsamroot, Phlox, Daggerpod, Bluebells, Serviceberry, etc along the lower stretches; Grass Widows, Buttercups, Shooting Star, Salt-and-Pepper near the top. The first grove of aspens was leaving out, but higher in the canyon they were still bare. It was a windy day, but we were mostly protected in the canyon. It was a different story on top, however, & we didn't stay long, electing instead to walk a little ways back down the canyon for lunch. It cleared up shortly after lunch & we had a sunny walk back to the cars. There was a party of Seattle Mountaineers in the canyon as well, this day, and we saw a number of other hikers starting in as we were coming out. We didn't see much wildlife or birds, but all the hillsides were green & beautiful.

Nice & easy little loop hike, saw a few families with kids. Cottonwoods & Aspens flowering along the lower valley, early wildflowers starting to wake up further up on the ridge - expect peak bloom in a couple weekends. Birds and frogs signing away. Upper half of trail is shared by ATVs, got dusted by a few on the ridge.