Umtanum Creek Canyon — Sunday, Mar. 24, 2013

Central Washington > Yakima

We worked in a quick hike here on the way home from a weekend of camping and hiking in the Yakima River Canyon. On a Sunday morning, there were quite a few cars parked at the trailhead parking lot/campground. It looked like some folks were fly fishing and others were just enjoying a sunny day playing in the creek. Since we only had an hour, we opted to head up the trail that branches off of the main trail just after you cross the river and come up from under the train tracks. We followed the trail on the eastern wall of the smaller canyon south of the main Yakima River Canyon and got some lovely views back down onto the canyon before it disappeared from view. The trail was in pretty good shape, with only a few spots where it had eroded down the hill. The tread was pretty soft for dog paws and muddy in a few spots where the trail neared the drainage creek. We ran across a few other hikers, but not as many as on the main Untanum Creek Canyon. We were hoping to climb up to more views, but had to turn around before we topped out on the ridge. If you lived in Ellensburg, this would make a great little early morning training hike. Nights sleeping outside: 2 Total nights outside this year: 2