I had to make an unexpected trip to Ellensburg today, and as I had a couple hours to kill, I was able to fit in a short hike to Umtanum Creek Falls.
Ellensburg was deep in the fog today, but I just barely managed to escape it at the trailhead. Unfortunately, it got thicker as I was hiking so that first TH picture is about all the sun I managed. A shame, since it looks like the views of the surrounding hills would be pretty nice. This set a new record for my coldest hike ever, as it was 19 degrees when I started. Bundle up!
ROAD: To get to the falls you need to drive a paved road out of Ellensburg for a few miles, then a dirt road another few miles. The roads are fully plowed and bare, so no problem for any car. The parking lot at the trailhead is covered in snow and ice, but it's packed down hard so driveable. I might not venture onto it without AWD or snow tires though, as you could probably get stuck fairly easily. This site requires a Discover Pass.
TRAIL: There is a nice bootpath / snowshoe track all the way to the falls, following the creek. It goes up and down a bit, but does not have significant elevation until you reach the falls. I used microspikes from the parking lot, which I would consider essential on this trail right now since it's very hard packed snow. Snowshoes would be overkill unless you plan on going off trail. On a clearer day, this would be a good place to snowshoe, as there are a lot of small hills you can climb up for different views, but none seem all that difficult.
FALLS: I arrived at the falls in about 15 minutes from the car, moving at a pretty fast pace. Upon arriving, you are at the top where the creek pours over the falls. The entire face of the falls is ice, so the water sort of dives into a hole behind the ice. At this point, you can either go right or left to go around the falls and get down to the base. I went right, which led up about 100', then back down to a point on the opposite side. The bootpath is still pretty good on this side, but there are several places where there is a steep drop toward the falls, so use caution. You might want to use poles, but I found spikes were enough. On the final descent to the base, there is a big patch of ice you have to cross or slide down, but it's not long and a fall wouldn't be too consequential.
When you reach the creek at the bottom, you need to cross a makeshift bridge made of a few logs to get to the pool beneath the falls. It looks sketchy, but felt pretty solid walking across. The falls are really cool from the bottom, and there are large ice formations all around. Not as impressive as something like Franklin Falls, but it's still pretty cool.
On the way back up, I ascended the other route around the north side of the falls. The bootpath here was not as packed out, but it was still decent. Be careful going across the creek to get back to the trail - the ice over the creek is NOT thick enough to walk on. Fortunately, there is a spot where it's just a big step to get across the creek.
The snow is about 1-2' deep off trail, and I didn't have my gaiters with me, so I didn't really want to venture off the beaten path.
HILL: On the way back, I followed a snowshoe / boot track up one of the hills on the north side of the trail, hoping to reach the sun. I didn't reach the sun - it was hard to even tell if I was at the top of the hill since it was so socked in. Oh well, it was a good way to stay warm!
SUMMARY: This is a rather short and easy hike, but there was enough scenery and ups and downs to keep it interesting. Would be fun for kids too, assuming they have spikes. Without the hike up the hill at the end, it was really only about an hour, maybe 90 minutes tops depending on how long you hang out at the falls. On a nicer day, and with snowshoes, it would be fun to explore some of the hills off the trail.
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