Spring in eastern WA has been so delicious this year that I had to go back for seconds. The hills are unusually green this year and the wildflowers are much better than average. Going east also gave me a chance to escape the gloomy western WA spring weather.
It is easy to get confused when talking about Umtanum. The most popular trailhead is off of the Yakima River Valley and there is a cool suspension bridge that immediately crosses the Yakima river to start the trail. This trailhead is for both the Canyon trail and the North and South Ridge trails. The more popular ridge trail is the one that I took and goes up to the ridge that is south of the canyon. The ridge trail that goes north of the canyon is very steep and slippery and not appropriate for most hikers. Umtanum Falls is accessed from a completely different trailhead at the west end of the Canyon. It is about a 25 min drive from the Suspension Bridge trailhead.
The Ridge trail is moderately steep and rocky for the first 1/2 mile and then the grade eases a bit. About 1.2 miles in I headed off trail to the northwest and eventually picked up an old jeep track that is now a seldom used grassy path. It eventually headed out to a ridge that drops steeply to the canyon. It looked too steep for me to decend to the canyon so I pretty much retraced my route with a small variation. On the return route I did a 1/2 mi side trip to the cliffs above the Yakima River which follows an old jeep path. This path is easy to see when you are heading down hill on the Ridge path. There's a great views of the Yakima River valley and the Umtanum Canyon from the Cliffs. There are actually may other off trail options from the Ridge trail. You can go all the way up to highest point on the ridge which is a 2000 foot climb. On the satellite image it looks like there is an active jeep road on top of the ridge so I elected to stay on the lower and in my opinion more scenic ridges. On a clear day, I'm sure the view from the ridge top would be worth the extra effort.
I did not see any rattlesnakes or ticks.
RT 7 mi and about 1500 feet elevation gain total.
You have to purchase a $5 BLM pass to park at the trailhead. They do not accept Discover or National Forest passes.
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