Quick follow on to my report from last Tuesday - I went back to the canyon today, this time with an accomplice (and with the sunscreen!). It was much busier on a Sunday, of course - the trailhead car park was pretty full, but most people seemed to stay by the Yakima River or the lower sections of Umantum, so relatively few people more than a mile in.
It was surprising for only five days later just how many more flowers seemed to be out this time - a week of great weather works wonders, it seems. I spotted multiple species that I didn't see around Tuesday.
The weather had obviously worked wonders for the rattlesnakes too, because after Tuesday's failure, they were certainly out today. We saw two, and most of the other people we passed had seen one or two as well. I was a little worried that there were several people walking dogs on a trail of which the Desert Hikes book says 'rattlesnakes are frequently seen in the summer', and is one of four places specifically name-checked on a Google search to go looking for rattlesnakes in Washington. One man on his way up had his dog on a lead, and specifically asked us if we'd seen snakes, but three just had their dogs running around loose, and one went off barking at a snake. I wouldn't let a dog of mine do that :-(
So the quick summary - if you like snakes, it's a great place to go, and if you don't, stay clear until autumn!
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