Cowiche Canyon Preserve — Monday, Mar. 19, 2018

I spent the day hiking the canyon trail and most of the East and Summitview uplands trails. In spite of the trailheads’ “Mud-O-Meters” that indicated moderate amounts of mud remaining on the trails and cautioned against hiking those where it was still present, I encountered none. I had the trails to myself in the morning (it was a weekday), but encountered more hikers, runners, and one pair of mountain bikers as afternoon and evening progressed. The canyon itself is still a bit drab, as most of the trees and shrubs that line its creek have not yet leafed out, although the rock formations that wall the trail are its prominent feature. Interpretive signs along the trail explain the canyon’s geologic origins and how to distinguish the types of rock that form its knobby columns and outcrops. Marmots scurried about the stones while raptors and magpies crisscrossed the canyon overhead. Nary a wildflower yet dots the canyon floor, but climb just a little up the trails to the canyon rim and grass-widows, yellow bells, sagebrush violets, and spring-gold proliferate throughout the rolling sageland, accented here and there by the earliest desert-parsleys. Coyote sign is also abundant, especially in the Summitview Uplands. Near the Summitview South Loop Trail’s western reach, traffic trundling along Summitview Avenue is a constant reminder of civilization, but is lost to the near silence of little but the occasional birdsong as the trails amble eastward. (There appear to be more trails in the Summitview Uplands than indicated by signage, although it is really impossible to get lost. When in doubt, take those that lead back toward the canyon rim.) On this clear day, Mt. Adams’ slightly downcast head topped the horizon above the sprawling farmland below and an eagle eye could spot the snowy tips of Mt. Rainier peering above the farthest hills. The East Uplands Trail offers expansive views of the canyon below and is a great place to enjoy the sun setting across the sageland and distant mountains with time to dash back down to a trailhead before darkness fully falls. I did so on two consecutive evenings, once beginning from the east trailhead and the next from the farther west trailhead. Just as I reached my car the second evening, the day came full circle, as the coyotes whose tracks I’d seen earlier began howling in the distance somewhere beyond the canyon rim.