Umtanum Creek Canyon, Yakima Skyline Trail — Saturday, Apr. 17, 2004

Central Washington > Yakima

Our group did an overnight trip beginning at the south trailhead Yakima Rim trail to Umtanum Canyon via some easy cross country travel. The wildflowers were excellent including cactus in bloom and lots of Lupine, Balsam root and many others I didn't recognize. We spent the night in Roza which was a disappointment as it seems that it's been plowed up for some unknown purpose and old town artifacts were piled up like so much junk. We camped up the trail toward Birdsong and had a pleasant night. Birdsong is definitely the place to camp with it's greenery and spring. Next day we climbed up the ridge toward the north trailhead, but cut over to Umtanum Canyon making an interesting variation on the usual route. Very nice with more wildflowers including a hot pink shooting star that I hadn't seen before. No snakes! No ticks either! Some fun thunderstorms on Saturday!