This is NOT a trail report from Umtanum Creek Canyon - it is about an easy alternative.

We wanted to go on a short hike WITH VIEWS from the Umtanum Rec. Area. To this end, we took the first left after crossing the bridge and the railroad track and another left a ways up the draw. See the attached track. For the best views, continue on for a bit further than we did. Stats of the track as shown: 3.9 km, 180 m elevation gain.

This hike isn't on WTA's list. Thus this report appears here.

As all over the "east side", wildflowers are just starting up. It will be a while (4 weeks?) auntil its peak. Nevertheless, there are some, little ones.

There also are a number of meadowlarks who serenaded us at the higher levels. WTA: listen. You need to put in a button for "birds (or frogs or coyotes) singing".

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This was our second time out here, but first since the fires in 2020. I was surprised to see all the burn remnants but happy that regrowth is happening. The creek was flowing pretty high and our usual stream crossing was too deep. We found the one people are using for current conditions: stay on the trail closest to the creek and it's about 0.75mi in by an established campsite and fire pit. There's a couple downed logs that can be crossed - just take your time.

No ticks at this time but I'd expect they'd be out soon. Only saw a few earwigs and birds.

We hiked this on Friday 4/7/2023, starting from the Umtanum Creek Recreation Site parking lot which has a paved road to access so no issues there.  About a mile in the trail has a lot of brush/trees down and leads to a stream crossing which was running too high for us to cross in simple day-hiking shoes and no poles.  There is an option to go further without crossing the stream yet but we weren't comfortable with the amount of scree on this option so we simply turned around.

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We didn’t hike up the creek. Rather, we drove up the eastern end of Manastash Ridge from the Ellensburg side,  and after the top turned left on Durr Road and parked after awhile on the side of the road and then hiked down to Umtanum Ck. This is a very interesting area, and the hike on the road down to the creek is just moderate.  There was an RV driving down as we were hiking up the road. On the drive in, there were a couple of guys shooting at targets—standard fare for the area. The creek is running strong along the bottom, and there is a well-built bridge over it. The road continues on and eventually leads down to the Selah area. There were just two small yellow flowers blooming along the side of the road. 

Ethan, Karen, & I took a hike at Umtanum Canyon today.  The outhouses were well stocked with TP.  Instead of hiking up the canyon, we took the old 2-track up the ravine to the left as if we were going to the ridge crest, but when we got to the aspen grove, we went right up onto the bench above the canyon.  It was mostly sunny and mild when we started, but by the time we reached the top of the bench the clouds had moved in and a cold wind was blowing.  We walked out the ridge running north from Pt 2126 until it dropped off and found a place mostly out of the wind for lunch with a nice view out the mouth of the canyon.  Even though it was cool, we stayed our usual hour or so.  Heading back, we traversed the nose of the ridge running northeast from Pt 2126 until we hit the main trail up the ravine just above the aspens, then went down the way we had come.  On the way down the ravine there were a few muddy spots, but they didn't give us any trouble.  We saw quite a few wildflowers:  lots of yellow bells and desert parsleys, buttercups, and a scattering of gold stars.  We also saw lots of other hikers, both climbing up and going down.  The only wildlife we saw were a couple of raptors and crows and two turkey vultures on a buttress above the mouth of the canyon sitting with their wings outstretched like comorants.