Umtanum Creek Canyon — Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021

Ethan & I wanted to be in the warm sunshine today, so we headed off to Umtanum Canyon.  This was our first time across the refurbished suspension bridge, and it was very nice.  We walked up the canyon about 1/2 mile beyond the second crossing, but at this point the trail had become incredibly overgrown with aspen suckers and difficult to follow despite the flagging reported by AlpsDayTripper, so we backtracked to the second crossing and climbed up to our usual lunch spot on the buttress.  We lounged in the sun for at least an hour and a half before heading back.  There are places along the trail, especially above the second crossing, that have been completely overgrown by aspen suckers (including the beautiful campsite at the second crossing), many of which are probably 7' high.  There are also downed branches & logs.  The canyon was not as colorful as I had expected after reading AlpsDayTripper's report from a few days ago.  Most of the aspen suckers and trees that survived are just starting to turn.  The wild rose and some of the willows are very nice, however.  I alsp found the silver aspens rising above the green suckers to be very beautiful.  And the incredible difference in size between the leaves of mature trees and the suckers was amazing.  It should be even nicer in here in a week or so when the trees & suckers are yellow.  We didn't see many others in the canyon in the morning, but there were lots of folks out enjoying the trail in the afternoon.