A friend with dogs and I were looking for a day hike in Eastern WA that we could reach easily from Seattle. The Umtanum Ridge Crest and Umtanum Creek Canyon hikes looked interesting, so we combined them in a 7.3 mile clockwise loop.
The first 2.2 miles got us to the ridge crest, where we stopped for lunch with great 360° views. We followed the ridge's dirt road for 1 mile, then turned right on a faint trail to begin a 2 mile descent across country down into the canyon. The trailed faded away, but it was relatively easy to follow our planned route (see the linked GaiaGPS track) through the grass and scrub. We spotted a number of deer. We picked up another trail just as we were dropping down into the canyon, and it was easy to gain the canyon bottom.
The creek was wonderfully cool on a sunny 75° day — too small for swimming, but just fine for wading and cooling off.
The final 2.25 miles was generally an easy hike along the canyon bottom, although the trail is more of a braid than a single track. We occasionally found ourselves in dense growth before finding a clear trail again.
Other hiking reports had mentioned rattlesnakes in the canyon, so we kept our two dogs behind us. We did indeed come across two rattlesnakes that slithered off as we approached.
One caution: we picked up a number of ticks on the hike. Back at the trailhead, we combed the dogs carefully for ticks — and found something like 30–40 ticks on each.
All in all, we got what we were after: a beautiful loop in Eastern WA within easy reach from Seattle that packed in a variety of terrain, flora, and fauna.
Comments
Great! Try Manastash Ridge next.
Posted by:
sparghi206@gmail.com on May 26, 2018 09:10 PM
Will do!
Posted by:
Jan Miksovsky on May 27, 2018 07:53 PM
Helpful for our hike yesterday! We tried to follow your loop, but couldn't find the connecting trail from the ridge down to the canyon - did we miss it somehow or did you get creative with your route?
Posted by:
HotDiggityDog on Jun 10, 2018 10:17 AM
I should have mentioned that difficulty, sorry. I'd constructed the connecting section in Google Earth following faint tracks in the satellite photos. On the ground, though, we kept losing the downhill trail. We'd pick up a bit here and there, but were often just following the general course I'd plotted. I was happy that we were able to pick up a trail again when it came time to drop into the canyon.
Posted by:
Jan Miksovsky on Jun 10, 2018 10:34 AM