Umtanum Creek Canyon — Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2016

Central Washington > Yakima

Trickly Umtanum Creek is a raging river after the winter rains. Evidence of the creek overflowing its banks is everywhere. All of last year's log bridges and beaver dams are washed away. If you keep the creek on your left from the trailhead, no creek crossings are necessary until about the 2-mile point. There the water is pretty fast but a motivated person could ford it. We decided not to bother. Pretty quiet in the canyon except for the creek. A clump of newly felled saplings showed evidence of beaver home repair, and a beaver crossed the trail in front of us. We saw a pair of harriers and a pair of golden eagles and heard lots of canyon wrens. Along Canyon Road near the junction is a proud osprey pair very visible on the nest.