We meandered 2.25 miles RT on the trail. We walked about 1/4 mile past the first creek crossing until we came to the creek where wading would have to be done to get across. We returned to the first creek crossing. I have been having left knee pain and didn’t want to try to cross the logs at the creek as I don't do well at the crossing when I don't have pain so we returned to the TH. Sumac at the beginning of the trail provided the most color in the area we walked.  The aspen trees are beginning to dress in their fall foliage, but there is more color in the aspen suckers! A man and his dog were crossing the bridge as we began our walk. He had been chukar hunting, but saw none. On our return to the TH we saw 3 people who were at the reader board at the start of the trail trying to decide what to do. They must have not walked either of the trails as they returned to the parking lot. There were a few camping, but we saw no one else. We returned to Yakima Sportsman SP where we are camped by driving the Umptanum Road from Ellensburg.  There was beautiful color in many of the aspen along the road after passing the Umptanum Falls TH. We saw a few western and mountain blue birds. a Northern shrike, a red-tailed hawk and 4 deer.

Adults and youth from Scouts BSA troop 498 and Girl Scouts troop 46596 did roughly 6 hours of cleanup of this trail for about 2.5 miles to a campsite. The trail was pretty overgrown, almost impassable in some spots. We cleared a lot of brush and opened the trail up a lot, however we didn’t go past the campsite and there were still some overgrown spots we weren’t able to get to. Overall, the trail is much better now. If you want to pass on any words to the Scouts, please let me know.

We camped this evening at the Umtaneum bridge campground. A small campground but clean and quiet. It was fully booked for the coming weekend.

I’ve been coming here for ~30 years yet this was my first time reading about the suspension bridge’s history. An educational story about railroads and their influence on The American cultural topography.

Once past the railroad tracks the river bottom opens up and trails run here and there. There is a mix of native and introduced flowers. The milkweed and mallow’s subtle colorings matched the evening light.

Canyon Wren’s sang their descending song, whilst swallows darted about gobbling up the evening hatch.

We walked less then a mile round trip and had an absolute joy.

The trail is badly overgrown and brushy.  I would not want to do it in warm weather when the rattlesnakes are out - too many places you just cannot see the ground.  It was misting and cold when I did it so no snakes, but I got absolutely soaked from pushing through wet vegetation.  There's no way around it.

Normally it's a great trail! but it seriously needs brushing out.

This is a beautiful area....open vistas and great views of rolling hills towering above the scenic Yakima River winding through its canyons. 

Like others recently reporting, we did not stay on the Umtanum Creek Trail. We took a left at off this trail and followed what Alltrails calls the Umtanum Vista Trail south for about a mile. We then took another trail (not sure what it is called) and followed it east for approximately 2 more miles. (route map included in photo). We had lunch at that point on the bluffs above the Canyon River Ranch development with great views of the Yakima River and the rolling hills all around us, all under a huge blue sky. 

The trail is in good shape notwithstanding the rocky, loose gravel and cobblers section as you climbed through a scenic canyon just after taking the Vista Trail off of the Canyon Creek Trail. This was beautiful section with stark basalt outcrops contrasting with sunflowers (or something similar) and other flowers with greenery along the canyon floor below. In addition to profusions of yellow flowers along various parts of our route, there were other wildflowers scattered along the way. The Lupines were only showing a few blooms and the balsamroot was well past bloom. 

Once you get the climb up into the hills out of the way, it is gentle ups and downs all the way to where we lunched and turned back. A great open vista with views of the hills, canyons and the Yakima River and a decent moderate workout. My tracking app showed a total RT distance for the hike at 6.1 miles. 

There is plenty of parking at parking/lot and picnic areas and a great bridge at the trailhead to cross and kick off your hike. There are several picnic tables at the parking lot and two toilets.