Although yellow is the predominant color in the canyon, the reds, grasses, and seed stages of other plants add to the beauty of the area. We hiked to the second creek crossing before returning to the TH. Other hikers were enjoying the beautiful fall day.

Rattlesnakes are out and difficult to spot due to overgrown trails. I passed people coming back who warned me they'd seen one a mile and a half ahead. I was on the lookout after that and turned around shortly after. I should have turned around right away, as I saw one on my way back. Even though I was looking for them I was almost on top of it before I saw it. Seems like a decent trail, but I'll wait till they're hibernating before going back.

Apart from Highway 20 fire closures, weather in the Cascades was questionable with a high percentage of precipitation. Another trip out to Umtanum Creek Canyon, but this time we scrambled up to high point east end of the ridge instead of walking down in the canyon like we did the first time. Weather was quite warm but not terribly hot, and I should have remembered to pack more water for the pups. The only noises we heard were from dirt bikers riding back and forth on the ridge. Nice eastern views on the ridge, including the aesthetic Yakima River Canyon. Glad we didn't spot any snakes on this trip.

We took the scouts over to Umtanum Creek to give them a chance to experience a more desert like hike while still staying a place where we'd have access to water - this short hike was the perfect place for that. The hiking for the first few miles is pretty straightforward. There are a number of small branchings of the trail but as long as you keep your face pointed up canyon and the creek nearby you'll have no problems heading the right direction. We encountered a number of good places to set up camp including one about two miles in that was a great place to stop for lunch. As we continued up canyon the trail became less easy to navigate. The brush along the sides becomes very overgrown. There are a few spots at about the three mile mark where the creek has cut into the trail making for a bit of a tricky hike as you skirt the small cliff while having a rock wall hard on your left. Eventually, we realized that we had reached about as far as we could reasonably make with our packs and we'd not found a decent stopping place to set up camp so we turned back around at just shy of four miles. We made our way all the way back to where we'd had lunch. There were a number of good places to set up camp, with wider meadows out in the open, but we preferred to be in the cooler parts under the trees. The scouts set up their camp and the adults set there's up. We'd brought a number of water filtration devices and after we'd cleared out the dead garter snake from the creek we got the boys started on filtering water. It was dry and hot out and all of us went through a lot of water. We encountered two rattlesnakes on our hike which we gave a wide birth to as well as a number of other small birds, mice and a live garter snake which was green hued with soft yellow stripes. There were no other hikers on the trail that day through we did meet up with a few on our way out the next day. The boys had a great time and learned a lot. We look forward to going back the next year.