I hiked up the steep hill on the north side of the Umtanum Creek mouth and...Best desert wildflowers ever!!! NOW is the time to do this hike! I hiked up the trail on the right and hiked it until it started heading up into the gully/ravine type thing. That is when I spotted a ton of lupine up the hill off the the left, so I left the trail and made my way uphill diagonally to the left, and found myself hiking through incredible fields of balsamroot and lupine. The mix of yellow and purple is so awesome! I kept wandering uphill and slightly left until I eventually stumbled upon the other trail that came up the nose of the ridge, and I slowly hiked down that steep and loose trail back to the railroad.

Wildflowers, blossoming in abundance. I suggest wearing long pants and a long sleeved shirt - there were several parts of trail that were narrow enough to be encroached on by bushes. This hike is very scenic and a real treat for the senses. The fresh air was minty cool and smelled of forgotten memories - not sure what that means exactly but go and try for yourself and you might think it, too. Note: I pulled a couple of ticks off my dog when I got back at the trailhead. Watch out for those things, and be diligent in your search (should you have a furry friend with you) before entering your car.

FLOWERS ARE HERE!!! Today I visited the Yakima Canyon to check in on the wildflowers. The drive through the canyon alone is gorgeous with tons of balsalmroot and green hills. I hiked up the hill on the north side of the Umtanum Creek mouth. I hiked up the steep trail on the left along the ridge nose, then down the other trail on the right. No point in hiking further on the ridge top because the flowers fade away once the trail hits the ridge crest. Tons of balsalmroot and some nice patches of lupine with a lot more flowers still to come at least through the first half of April.

We embarked on the ridge trail first and did not know what to expect as we couldn't find a lot of info on it. So I am writing this with the assumption that we did the ridge crest trail but in all honesty, I have no idea. We followed other's instructions and when we came to a board that looks like a trailhead sign, but without any helpful information, we split left (right being the creek trail). We then came to another split pretty early after the initial climb and had no idea which way to go, so we split right. It meandered in a valley between hills before ascending rather steeply. Each time we got to the top of a hill we just knew we were going to be greeted with the 360 degree views we'd been working for. But in fact there was just another even larger hill in front of us. At one point we looked up and could follow the trail to the summit, which was of course an even larger hill/mountain. With each step we took we were greeted with more and more amazing views. The weather was beautiful but not clear, we got glimpses of the cascades but for the most part just imagined what they looked like. After returning to the "trailhead" sign, we walked down the creek trail. This is flat and easy to follow. A beautiful walk through the canyon. There were a couple of splits off this trail, but they all end up meeting back up with the same trail. And just an fyi, we enjoyed the camp ground quite a bit. We have only camped in the cascades, so it was a bit different having no trees or separation from neighbors but we will totally be back.

Just a short stop, as we had been hiking most of the day, around Vantage. Took the Ellensburg Canyon road home, just for the views. There we quite a few drift boats on the water. We stopped and crossed the suspension bridge at Umtanum, because I'd never been on it. We were just in time to have a train rush past. I stood under the tracks. It was pretty thrilling, like a rollercoaster ride. It was fun, little side trip. Hope I can post the video