Black Canyon

Bought a new hike book for the desert part of the state and chose this one for the potential of lots of wildlife. The road from wenas road to the trailhead was quite hateful - impreza outback made it, but just barely. my hiking companion (we'll call her josefa) and i began the hike around 10:30am. I attribute this late start time to the reason we didn't see much wildlife. The canyon itself is beautiful though, with the aspen changing color now. The old hunters cabin looks cool nestled among the aspen. The rock formations were interesting too, and seemed different from what i am used to in umtanum canyon. The aspen grove was vireo central - they were all over the place. Farther up there were some stellar jays and tons of chipmonks and squirrels dashing about the in ponderosa pine. Also saw one hairy woodpecker. Up on Umtanum ridge the wind was a bit noticeable so we lingered only long enough to eat. On the way back, we saw our first (live) porcupines. there were two young ones in the trees having snacks. since we were on the road/trail and they were up in the trees coming up from the valley floor, they were about level with us, perhaps ten yards away. we watched them dine for a while, then one of them settled into a crook in the tree for a nap. That was pretty much it for wildlife. The drive over (on wenas/umptanum rd) actually held more - coyote, deer, flocks of bluebirds and quail.