Perfect spring day for a hike on any of the Yakima Canyon trails. We tried Umtanum this time. Some wildflowers starting to bloom, but just a few; probably a couple of more weeks until the peak. Around two miles the trail becomes overgrown with bushes and young aspen; combine that with a rattlesnake (one of two on the day) and we decided to turn around.

There's a second major trail leaving from the trailhead, not mentioned in the hiking guide, called the Vista trail. We explored up it about a half mile to add some elevation gain to the day. Seems worth coming back to hike fully on another day.

I love the old suspension bridge across the Yakima River. Amazing that it was built in 1925 and still hangs on today.

This evening the canyon was full of Robins, Canyon Wren, and a Great Horned Owl (or so my phone tells me). We simply enjoyed the evening colors and babbling creek.

Three and one half miles up the canyon is closed until June for Big Horn Calving. The flowers were fabulous and the temperatures could be beat.

It was a beautiful sunny day out and hiking in this canyon was a very pleasant way to spend it. Still a bit early for wildflowers, but on the bright side I didn't see any snakes either. Unfortunately I didn't see a single dog that was on a leash, which is always a tad disappointing.

The first river crossing was a bit dicey, as the log to walk on was wet and slippery (the picture doesn't really do it justice). The creek was pretty full and flowing strongly, falling in would have been unpleasant.

The second river crossing was really easy and not a problem at all. After the second crossing the trail becomes really hard to follow. I found myself getting off track a few times, but you can't really get too lost because you stay in between the canyon wall and the creek.

Ethan, Karen, Brenda, & I took a walk at Umtanum Canyon today.  The outhouse at the trailhead was still stocked with TP on a Mon morning.  We walked up the canyon almost to the second crossing.  The first crossing, however, was a bit of an adventure.  The creek is high, but there were a few small logs across, so I gave it a try.  Half way across one of the logs broke and I got wet half way up my thigh.  The rest of the party scrounged around for more logs and finally had enough so they thought they could get across without getting wet, which they did.  It might be easier right now to come up the trail on the north side of the creek.  Once we got almost to the second crossing, we turned right and headed up the major sidecanyon that comes in from the north.  Karen had been up this canyon right after the Evans Canyon fire when there wasn't much brush, but despite a game trail, it was quite brushy today.  The footing was often uneven and there was water in the creek, which made the walking a little more difficult than if it had been dry.  It was quite strenuous and took about an hour to get half-way up the canyon.  At this point we decided to climb out of the canyon and traverse the open hillside to the ridge-top.  Then we had to walk east close to a mile to get to the rim of the Yakima Canyon where we found a scenic spot for lunch.  It had clouded up and become cold by this time, but we still stayed most of an hour.  Karen was going to bring a treat with a candle for my birthday last week, but she wasn't feeling well, so she brought it today and so I got to blow out a belated birthday candle.  Afterwards we walked back down the ridge above the Yakima Canyon to the last ravine before the mouth of Umtanum Canyon and descended moderate slopes and the ravine to the river and back to the cars.  We saw buttercups and Canby's desert parsley, heard canyon wrens, and I saw some deer as we were descending.  By the time we were done we had walked 5.5 miles and climbed 1200'.  It doesn't look bad on paper, but ol' Mytho-Man found it much more strenuous than he would have liked.

Really just wanted to see/walk the suspension foot bridge over the Yakima. 

Walked a mile up the canyon, quiet and peaceful. Creek was high and it surely wasn’t hot out so we didn’t cross it. Saw a couple of other couples walking, mostly had the place to ourselves. A very enjoyable walk.