Phlox and balsam root are blooming on the South-facing hillsides and on top of Manatash Ridge, but the canyon bottom still has very few signs of Spring. Flowers won't peak for 3 weeks or so... The trail appears to have been improved fairly recently, and is now easy to follow, including the left-hand trail up to the Umtanum Ridge Crest. The beavers have been active, moving their lodges downstream, closer to the trailhead, but they remained hidden. Their workmanship is obvious, however. If you want to see the Bighorn Sheep, Elk, and Mule Deer, follow an animal trail to the top of Manatash Ridge (the ridge on the right when looking up canyon). There are also plenty of eagles present, horned toads, and a few songbirds.

For my initial hike of 2005, I decided on the easy creek walk that is Umtanum Canyon. I began my hike around 9:30am, with the weather cooperating. The first landmark I usually look for on this hike is the beaver construction area, where the beavers have added five more dams upstream of their den. In fact, it looked like they had taken a wrong turn in excavating, and part of the trail has a new sink hole in the middle of it. From there the trail was fine - always a pleasure this time of year before the growth takes over. After about two miles along, I noticed some sheep that were way up along the canyon rim and considered scrambling up one of the draws (remember, easy creek walk?) but thought better of it and continued on another mile. There I encountered the second beaver community which is far more extensive than the first. This is also about were the trail fades away. I found myself on a game trail with the canyon rim beckoning me (as it usually does). So once again, I scrambled toward the top. When I crested the final hill, the sheep were moving through and seemed to pick up the pace upon my arrival. They were perhaps 75 yards away. I paused to let them put more space between us, then I continued north hoping to find a way to navigate around a very large draw. But it wasn't to be as i found that the draw kept going much farther than i wanted to go. When i turned around to get my bearings with the canyon, i was being watched! The sheep had snuck up on me. I snapped a couple of pictures before the herd, as a unit, took a couple of steps toward me. I took a couple of steps back and then they decided to run away again. Whatever. So i headed back in the direction of the parking lot. While up on top though, i saw a strange spectacle - a bald eagle and another bird soaring close together overhead. I know it sounds weird, but the other bird looked like a red-tailed hawk. I flushed out a couple of chukars on accident and also saw a couple of praire falcons making the rounds. And, a first for me - i saw shooting stars growing on the top of the hill where the sheep were. I would have thought it too dry. That was about it for flowers other than some buttercup looking things. On the way back down one of the hateful draws, i noticed that again i was being watch. There were three sheep way up in the rocks above me. I felt like lecturing them in trail maintenance as their path left little to be desired, but it wasn't their fault that i didn't have hooves. It was good to finally get to the canyon floor and relatively flat ground. At this point, around the homestead site, the trail was getting pretty busy and it was time to head home. So much for my easy creek walk!

Gorgeous, no bugs, no worries. Spent one night at second sweet camp spot. Trail is easy to lose, cross river at first camp spot and avoid beaver condo complex. Much snake activity. Saw five rattlers. One so big he skipped across the grass.

Our group did an overnight trip beginning at the south trailhead Yakima Rim trail to Umtanum Canyon via some easy cross country travel. The wildflowers were excellent including cactus in bloom and lots of Lupine, Balsam root and many others I didn't recognize. We spent the night in Roza which was a disappointment as it seems that it's been plowed up for some unknown purpose and old town artifacts were piled up like so much junk. We camped up the trail toward Birdsong and had a pleasant night. Birdsong is definitely the place to camp with it's greenery and spring. Next day we climbed up the ridge toward the north trailhead, but cut over to Umtanum Canyon making an interesting variation on the usual route. Very nice with more wildflowers including a hot pink shooting star that I hadn't seen before. No snakes! No ticks either! Some fun thunderstorms on Saturday!

LarBear and I tried the Waptus Lake trail but there was still snow patches in the parking lot. From previous experience we know there would be ""rotton snow"" on the trail so we changed plans to sunny Umtanum Canyon. For the first time ever the parking lot was full of cars and more people hiking the canyon than we had ever seen. Normally it is easy for us to find a campsite but all normal camping areas were taken. No bugs yet on a day that was mild, windy with sun until evening when a light rain fell. Saw a dead rattlesnake on the side of the trail that unfortunately somebody had slaughtered. If you don't like snakes hike in town. Please don't harm these useful creatures. We also had a bull snake in our meadow camp so we just shooed it out of our way. We almost always see Bighorn sheep on the hillsides of this canyon but we saw none in Umtanum this time. We did see several small bands of sheep on the hillsides of Yakima Canyon. There is a lot of beaver damage in Umtanum Creek and one small area of the trail is nearly washed out but still easy to hike through.