Umtanum Creek Canyon — Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013

Central Washington > Yakima

Ethan, Jonah, & I went to Umtanum Canyon on this cloudy, sometimes rainy day. We went about a quarter mile or so past the second creek crossing, but it was raining pretty hard so we turned around to look for a more sheltered place to stop for lunch. A little ways back down the canyon we spied what looked like a good sized cave a couple hundred feet above the trail so we climbed up to it. It turned out not to be as big as it looked, but it gave us the protection we wanted. By the time we were done with lunch the rain had slacked off and we had a mostly dry walk back to the car. We saw a couple of deer, but no big horn sheep. The first creek crossing has been altered by a couple of beaver dams, one of which is high enough that it is diverting water down a grove beside the main trail. We had no problem crossing the creek, however. There were a few other hardy souls out today, but no hunters. The fall color was beautiful in the nice even light of a cloudy day.