Umtanum Creek Canyon — Friday, Oct. 9, 2020

From reading the previous trail report, I knew the bridge had been closed due to fires, but a call to the BLM (509-536-1200) told us it was open again (but only till late October, when it'll be closed for construction). It was a beautiful, warm fall day, and my husband wanted to fly fish in the Yakima River canyon, so I set off on a hike, despite the fact that the area had burned just a few weeks ago. I hadn't done this trail before (and didn't have a map), but I knew I couldn't get lost because it's a narrow canyon and the trail simply follows the creek.

The burn wasn't complete -- there were areas of living shrubs and trees, but also long stretches of ash, soot, charred brush across the trail, fallen shrubs, etc. The trail was entirely invisible in many places and so I made my way the best I could. After a slow, dirty couple of miles I turned around and plodded back to the trailhead. My boots, socks, and pants were quite a sooty mess!

But there is hope -- many of the trees will recover, and there was already green blades of grass growing through the ashy meadows.