I took my daughter and husband to Umtanum Creek to scout for a possible backpacking trip with my Girl Scout troop. The trail started out OK but we quickly found that it was hard to navigate because of so much brush and high grasses. The trail was unclear and difficult to follow. There were several places where the brush was so close it was scratching our arms and faces. Please come service this trail, WTA!

The first mile is pretty much as always, except for a bit more spots of overgrown brush from the land rebuilding from the fire two years ago, but the tread is there and you just need to look down to follow it. The first creek crossing is fine with plenty of logs.  After that, it is intermittently good and then very overgrown and tree suckers are thick.  But again, look down and you can follow the trail
The old second trail crossing back to the south side of the creek is gone, the logs are there but they go nowhere.  We search for the trail and it faintly would start and stop in an almost impassable thicket.  Once through that, we couldn't pick up the trail anywhere.
 Went back across the creek to the north side and followed the trail for 100 meters and it just stopped in a rock field.

Last year I continued on the rock to see if that went through, it didn't.  I don't know where the old trail went, looks like the foliage has claimed it back.
We saw about 5 rattlesnakes.  One very large one I almost stepped on while using my trekking pole to beat through the thicket on the trail. He was moving away quickly as I came through. Nothing to worry about, you just need to pay attention.

As others have mentioned, there’s plenty of parking in a large lot at the trailhead, even on a busy summer Saturday when lots of people were using the lot to park while paddling and rafting on the river. The electronic kiosk for the $5 BLM day pass was easy to use.

As for the trail, we were disappointed. The Umtanum Creek canyon is lovely, but the quantity of brush you have to push trough really detracted from the enjoyment for us. The grass and aspen brush are head high in several places, and sometimes for decent stretches. We didn’t have difficulty following the trail, but you find it with your feet more than your eyes. Just shy of 1.5 miles in, we hit a patch of thistles and turned around. Just didn’t feel worth it. I would happily hike this trail again after a clean-up, but in its current state, it was disappointing.

Hiked this trail on Saturday June 11.

Parking: Plenty of parking in the lot. We arrived around 11:30 am and the lot was maybe 1/3 full. As far as I can tell parking never filled up. I brought cash to pay day-use fee, and was plesantly surprised to find they hav an electronic card reading pay station.

General conditions: Trail condition was good. We had a handful of people throughout the day, but overall the trail wasn't too busy. Several sections were pretty dense tall grass perhaps a bit overgrown. Everything was passable, but you will find yourself pushing through brush is several sections. The trail descriptions mentions at least one dense aspen grove. I counted a few more than just one.

Screenshot the trail description: As others have noted this trail is not exactly well marked. That said, I found the trail descriptions to be very informative. I would recommend taking screenshots to have as reference. It not a hard trail to follow, but it splits a handful of times and the trail description lets you know which split to take.

Stream crossings: The trail description notes that in springtime some of the streams can be too high to cross. Despite the Yakima river looking good n full, the stream crossings were very easy when we went.

Wildlife: We only got a glimpse of one snake crossing the trail. A group ahead of us mentioned seeing 5 snakes of which one was a rattler. Bring a stick should you need to push a snake off the trail. Otherwise, keep an eye out and you will be fine.

As a final note, the canyon is quite beautiful, and I would absolutely do this trail again. There's much hype for trails with lots of elevation gain. While this trail isn't a grueling climb with sweeping views, the beauty is in abundance throughout the canyon.

Camped at Umtanum Campground and meandered out the Umtanum Creek Canyon trail. The campground is small, but lovely and there is plenty of parking for day use. The river was absurdly full of water with all the recent rains, flooding up onto the sides and flowing very quickly.

After you cross the bridge over the river, you cross under the train tracks and veer left to stay on the main trail. At the big wooden sign, go straight (the left goes up the Umtanum Ridge Crest trail). The trail is straight forward for a bit, but then starts splitting off into side trails which may or may not lead anywhere. I was glad to have the All Trails map downloaded, although even without you can't really get lost since you stay within the main canyon out and back and it's simple to back track if you end up at a dead end. We went 2.5 miles in, but the trail continued a bit further. Creek crossings were quite easy, but many parts of the trail are very overgrown. You can still find the trail with some patience, but I was wishing I wore pants instead of shorts. We came across 4 or 5 snakes, only 1 of which was a rattle snake. It was right on the trail, and slowly meandered off when we stomped nearby, but didn't rattle at us.

Despite the very overgrown trail, I thoroughly enjoyed this hike. The canyon is bursting with life- tons of wildflowers, hundreds of butterflies, dozens of birds, and beautiful green foliage bursting up beneath the blackened trunks of the taller trees scourged by wildfire. Past the first half mile, we only saw a few other hiking parties and it was incredibly peaceful. A gorgeous day for exploring and wildlife viewing.