Umtanum Creek Canyon — Friday, May. 6, 2011

Central Washington > Yakima

Shortly after crossing the bridge across the Yakima River we saw a snake sunning itself across the trail. When seeing us, it slithered into its hole to the right of the trail.We hiked a little over 3 miles seeing very few hikers. The 2 creek crossings were easy. Flowers seen were oregon grape, death camas, brodiaea, puccoon, thistle, arrow leaf balsamroot, lupine just beginning to bloom, ballhead waterleaf, purple desert parsley, serviceberry, and quince by the old homestead site. We saw northern harriers, Townsend's warblers, yellow-rumped warblers, yellow warblers,and kestrel. The canyon was very green and beautiful with all the new spring growth. We saw no rattlesnakes and found no ticks. Instead of crossing the creek near the old homestead on our return we continued along to creek to the TH.