Umtanum Ridge Crest, Umtanum Creek Canyon — Sunday, Apr. 17, 2022

We arrived at the parking lot around 10 to just 4 other cars. It was a lovely quiet morning - beautiful open hills, big blue skies, and nice and cool with just a sprinkling of snow in the distance. We started on the ridge trail and went a couple of miles until we could see the Stuart Range, but didn’t continue to the end as we heard from other hikers who had turned around that the trail ahead was very muddy. That gave us time to go down to the canyon trail where we went 1.5 miles in to see open fields and dramatic basalt cliffs with the green hills. The lot was close to full when we came back around 2pm. The flowers are just starting to bloom, so maybe full blooms will hit in 2-3 weeks. Deer tracks and snake sighting. A very pleasant spring walk!