Umtanum Creek and ridge. 4/8/09 Imagine my surprise to see Pelicans on the Yakima river! I had only seen them over at the ocean and never thought of them as fresh water birds. According to my book, the lump on the bill indicates they were breeding. All that excitement before we had even begun the hike– this was clearly going to be a wonderful day. We were met by strong gusty winds in the parking lot, the suspension bridge was swinging and squeaking before we stepped a foot onto it. Sun filtered through high clouds with occasional sun breaks. At the start of the day, the wind was cold, by mid-day it was t-shirt hiking weather, the wind still gusty enough that I had to do a “two step” to maintain balance at times, but without the sting. As the sun settled behind the ridge, out came the long sleeves again. I was worried about rattlesnakes, so inadvertently mistimed this hike. We only saw one snake, (not a rattler) but also, only the most minuscule flowers were in bloom. The trees were bare, with out leaves to cushion their branches they rattled and clacked in the breeze. Larger ones squeaked and groaned as they swayed. After crossing the railroad tracks we went on the trail to the left, up the canyon to the ridges and hills above. The path kept luring us up and up. We would say, “okay just to the top of this ridge”, only to realize at the “top” that it was not the top at all, and we still wanted to see what was “up there”. Finally selecting a windswept hill, we sat in a grassy place to have lunch while we listened to the songs of two Larks singing to each other, each perched on it’s own sage bush. We saw no real wildlife, but lots of droppings and tracks. I am excited, I believe I saw my first cat tracks. I am not sure it would be a cougar, they were only about 2 1/2 inches. Perhaps a Bobcat, though. I need to search my books, to be sure. It certainly seemed to be a likely location, going up a cliffy bank away from a small creek. With the leaves only beginning to bud out on a few bushes, and very few flowers, the colored rocks and lichen (?) on them seemed more striking then usual. Finally we started down, so we could have time to walk down the Umtanum Creek trail before going home. The creek was running pretty high. The old beaver dam is still intact. They must do some pretty good construction when they build them! Down near the creek is where we saw the snake, slowly moving across the trail in the warm sun. Nyla said it looked like a Garter snake, and my book backed her up on it. It was about 2 1/2-3 feet long, and very thin. Later in the day as we were hiking back to the car, we heard a Mourning Dove. What a sweet mellow sound… What a wonderful hike, and nice break from snow shoeing! by Trail Snail

April 9, 2009: Umtanum Ridge and Umtanum Canyon Last year I had wandered the rolling hills of Umtanum Ridge after accessing it from the North Trailhead; that approach had involved a hellish (though scenic) drive on Durr Road and I had vowed never to try that again. This time I decided to approach Umtanum Ridge from the Umtanum Creek Canyon access. A 2hr drive had me on the trail at 8:30am. After crossing the suspension bridge over the Yakima River and then the railroad tracks just adjacent, I quickly took a left to enter the first side canyon on the left. Lovely, scented desert plant life surrounded me and crisp conditions heralded the start of a beautiful day. The way up the narrow canyon was on the stiffish side, but rugged cliffs kept my attention on the scenery rather than the exertion. A pretty creek was my companion, with tiny, lush basins providing more interest. Eventually, things began to open up and the rolling, tumbling hills of Umtanum Ridge began to appear. Puff-ball clouds dotted a blue sky, keeping things cool, by periodically shielding me from the warming sun. There wasn't much of a flower-show, except for one splash of yellow about two-thirds of the way up. The remaining third was steep, steep, steep. The reward was the gorgeous, scalloped Umtanum Ridge crest. I decided to head right to the nearby 3,630ft high point of Umtanum Ridge, where I decompressed, had lunch and enjoyed the sights and music from birdsong. The descent was relatively quick, since I also wanted to explore the Umtanum Creek Canyon. As I entered the canyon, my progress ground to a standstill as a lovely cottonwood grove enticed me with its charms. This place must be fantastic in autumn, but the gleaming white trunks still took my breath away. I finally managed to tear myself away and resumed onward progress. About a mile in, I crossed Umtanum Creek on partially submerged logs. The creek was a rushing, chattering companion and provided constant entertainment: a beaver dam here, a limpid pool there. Towering basalt cliffs rose impressively on either side. Around 2.5mi into the canyon I reached my turn-around point. As I sped back to my car I finally began to encounter other hikers...perfectly timed. Additional photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shahiddurrani/sets/72157616568680168 Cumulative stats: - Distance: 12mi - Elevation gain: 2,580ft - Hiking time: 6.5hrs

I took a walk in Umtanum Canyon this afternoon. I left my truck about noon under sunny skies and walked a mile or so up the canyon to where major side canyons come in from both sides. Most of the canyon was in shade, but here it was sunny until, of course, I sat down for lunch, when the clouds moved in. It stayed mostly cloudy for the rest of the day, though there was a fairly nice sunset as I drove home through the Yakima Canyon. The trail was compacted enough that it was easy walking without snowshoes or traction devices. The most difficult part was the suspension bridge, which was very icy. I didn't see much wildlife today: only one bald eagle across the river as I drove up the canyon, a big horn sheep way up on the ridge behind me as I ate lunch, a porcupine in the top of a ponderosa pine near the mouth of the canyon that some folks from Seattle were trying to photograph, and a female downy woodpecker going after seeds on the dried mullein stalks, but the canyon itself was beautiful.

With the rest of the usual crew either recovering, out of town, or otherwise occupied I signed on for a trip to Umtanum with team BadDog. A snow free trip with the prospect of flowers sounded very nice. I was also itching to try out my lightweight Montrail Namche boots I picked up on Steep and Cheap recently. We arrived at the trailhead to find lots of tents and an RV setup. Some sort of conservation event was going on. We parked and started up the trail, immediately hitting the first obstacle: Holly, today's white-dog, wouldn't cross the bridge. Joanna picked her up and carried her across. Once across we started up the ridge trail, passing many people out admiring the flowers. The flower show was decent but nowhere near years past. It looks to me like fewer plants and most have yet to bloom. Much of the balsamroot appeared dead, likely doomed by that last batch of April snow. Bruce zoomed ahead and we finally caught him on the ridgetop. Here Joanna surprised us all by pulling out a huge wheel of double Gloucester cheese from her pack, which we then chased madly down the hill to the canyon floor, completing our loop. Actually, though cheese was a theme of the day, she'd toted along fresh watermelon and oranges which tasted great on this very warm day. We moseyed along the ridgetop road down to the radio towers and stopped for lunch. Along the way we found a tiny lizard and passed a group of backpackers headed the opposite way. Our lunch spot was surprisingly cold with a brisk wind. Dropping down just beyond the brim though we were again very warm. After some off-trail travel we reached Durr Road and followed that to the valley floor. We made a side trip to check out the creek ford - very shallow today and wouldn't be a problem for a Subaru or truck. Now the fun began as we started up the canyon floor back to the car. At first we had easy, if brushy, trail to follow. But then we hit a red sign informing us of a wildlife closure through July. Unfortunately we had no choice but to go on. After passing a large log Bruce informed us we'd both walked past a large snake basking in the sun. It wasn't a rattler but still added some excitement. We'd lost the trail as well, and were sick of getting cut to pieces by the brush, so began climbing the side of the canyon to get above the brush. We were on snakewatch now and the process was: 1. Watch footing 2. Look ahead for snakes 3. repeat. Our loop wasn't going as planned - we ran into a narrow slot canyon blocking our path. Dropping back to the brush wasn't an option so we went back onto the ridge. Partway up I heard a loud rattle somewhere nearby. I froze, then stomped to figure out where the snake was, before moving around it. Past this obstacle and finally with clear travel we followed an animal trail along the hillside. As we went we kept an eye out for another way down to the valley floor, knowing there was a real trail below. Several slot canyons presented themselves but looked to cliff out. Crossing through another one, Bruce was in the lead. He walked right past a small sage brush but as I approached there was a loud rattle and a snake reared up ready to strike about six inches in front of me. Before my brain processed this I'd already jumped backwards. We yelled for Holly who thankfully hadn't seen the snake and worked our way downhill away from it. It was a small rattler but that was my closest encounter with one so far. I was actually glad it was a rattler - any type of quiet snake and I'd likely have been bitten. We continued down the slot canyon on animal tracks, crossing over the little stream inside hoping to get to the valley floor. It soon ended in a 20 foot drop of basalt cliff and scree. None of us are mountain goats so that wasn't an option. We had to yo-yo back up yet again. While Bruce and Joanna started up I went a bit further to the edge of a rock outcrop on a hunch. I could see a nice sloping grass run with a faint boot track down. Before they went too high I yelled back and we made our way down, finally on the real trail. We were all glad to be out of serious snake territory and on flat ground. My feet were especially glad - the Namches were very comfortable but certainly not a good off-trail boot for this terrain. Now it was a nice flat walk back, and a race against the rain. Soon a squall moved in causing us to put on our rain jackets - which in turn immediately caused the rain to stop. Minutes later the jackets came off. Happily the cars were now in sight! Even better Holly had worked up some courage and crossed the bridge on her own. We piled in the Forester and after a quick stop for drinks at the Thorp Antique Fruit barn headed out - nine ours after our hike began! Riding back I spotted a tick on Holly's ear, picked it off and sent it out the window. Every itch now felt like a phantom tick to us. Our loop turned out to be a more exciting trip than planned. In the end the GPS tracked 15 miles with 3446 ft of gain. Oddly these numbers disagree with what the unit told me when we returned to the car, but the map seems sound. What a long day! It's nice to remember what sorts of distances and gain are possible when not weighted down by snow gear. Full trip photos @ http://www.pbase.com/billcat/umtanum2/

We hiked about 3 miles along Umtanum Creek Canyon. Wildflowers were just beginning--dark purple desert- parsley,lupine,larkspur. These were few and far between. The Balsamroot didn't appear to be near ready to bloom-just green leaves popping through last year's dead leaves. We saw many yellow- rumped warblers, a female hairy woodpecker being courted by 2 males, a beaver swimming into its home when it saw us, 1 lone bighorn sheep and then further along 6 playing on rocks across the creek as we began to ascend above the creek about 1/2 mile from the campsite at about 2 miles. This is a very pleasant spring hike.