Umtanum Creek Canyon — Tuesday, Jun. 15, 2021

After reading Lucy's report from Sunday, we decided to see if we could find the yellow-breasted chats and lazuli buntings that she had seen. We set up camp at the Umtanum CG and then hiked one mile up the canyon. We saw many butterflies and heard more birds than we saw. We did see a cooperative yellow-breasted chat and one lazuli bunting that didn't want its picture taken. The area seems to be recovering nicely from the Evans Canyon fire of last year.  There are many baby aspen growing in the areas where the aspen were torched. Golden currant, alfalfa, mock-orange, monkey flowers, gumweed, hedgenettle, collomia, elderberry and many grasses were some of the plants seen. Long pants are recommended as the trail is overgrown in many areas. One needs to be aware that poison ivy is present in some areas.