Part 1 - Umtanum Campground & Umtanum Canyon Trail

For Easter weekend, I drove East and my sister drove West and we met in relatively the middle near Ellensburg to camp and hike.  We got to Umtanum campground at almost the same time and got the very last camping site.  Close call!  I brought Cedar and she brought her hubby, Chris, and their dog- a gorgeous Caucasian Ovcharka named Odin. 

This campground was situated along the Yakima River and surrounded by hills of varying steepness, some of which were inlaid with breathtaking formations of columnar basalt.  These rock columns were in varying degrees of erosion and covered with lichens or something that were bright orange or a bright yellow-green.  With the rich greens of the pines, the golden grasses, and the new green of the baby deciduous leaves, it was stunning everywhere you looked.  Also, very rarely do I find I am in one lovely spot for enough time to sit around and soak in the changing of the light on the rock face, the gradual heating and cooling of the day, and the shifts in breeze direction.  It was so relaxing.

Saturday morning after a quick breakfast and camp coffee (which I just couldn’t seem to get right), we walked to the other side of the parking lot where the Umtanum Creek Canyon hike starts out with a suspension bridge over the Yakima River.  It swayed, creaked and kind of twisted.  Adventure Dog did pretty good until he was halfway across and then crouched down on the planks and wouldn’t take another step.  Here is a picture of my sister, Rosy, her husband and their dog.

The trail meandered through a fascinating combination of desert and river valley landscape.  Someone had homesteaded up the Umtanum Creek valley at one time and remnants of their fences were still there.  I read that the foundation of their home could be seen as well, but I did not find it. 

 Here and there beavers had been hard at work chewing down trees and building dams in the stream.  This big tree they had apparently given up on.

The trail went through several alder stands.  Their white trunks against the blue sky were quite striking.  It was also cool to see the black markings on them, knots, eyes, spots… each tree with its own pattern.  (picture of me thanks to my sister!)

We also saw a lot of cool plants and flowers.  These first two my sister identified as wild carrot and balsamroot.  I was tempted to pull a wild carrot up to look at its root, but that just didn’t seem nice.

This ground squirrel kept a sharp eye on us as we passed.

At the end of the hike, we went back over the bridge and enjoyed the sunshine at camp, strolling down the Yakima a couple times and looking at deer on the hillsides.  That bit will follow tomorrow, along with our second hike.