Today's adventure was supposed to be quite different. I left the pups at home (due to expected ticks and snakes) and headed toward Ellensburg with the intent of hiking both Umtanum Canyon and Umtanum Creek Falls. I left early and as I rocketed along I-90 I started seeing signs that said traction tires were required, chains required on large trucks, etc. The weather was getting nastier as I went up in elevation and I didn't want to slide around on the pass or get stuck on the other side, so I turned around.
Since this is the time of year I typically go visit Romulous and James at the Franklin Ghost Town/Mine, I headed that way. I thought the daffodils might be blooming, but they weren't. Also, sadly a gun range has been put in somewhere near the cemetery so the nearly continuous popping of firearms takes away from the peace of the place. Still, I was glad to have gone and not missed my annual visit.
I did see flowers blooming, bleeding heart and salmon berry flowers, as well as a little blue flower I don't know. There were not many people up there and the ones I did run into were really friendly.
Since I didn't have my dogs pulling impatiently I took my time and wandered around looking at the rusty remnants and building foundations. I was really bummed to see some asshat tagged most of them with red spray paint. : (
Once I finished that hike, I decided to catch another on my way home, so I headed for Cherry Creek Falls out of Duvall. Neither of these hikes have much elevation gain, but this one was a little longer than Franklin. It was super muddy in quite a few spots, but there are handy streams to stick your boots in and wash that mud off. Most of the streams don't have bridges, so you get to pick your way over.
There were flowers here too. In addition to the bleeding heart, I was happy to see trillium blooming in the forest. Most seemed about spent, but there were clumps here and there with fresh white petals.
There are a couple wrecked cars along this trail too. I'd love to know their story. The first is fairly close to the road, and obviously along what is a gravel road that is now closed to motorized traffic. The yellow one though, is a bit farther off it seems.
I was super lucky to have the falls all to myself for almost 10 minutes - not another soul there when I arrived, although I met plenty of people along the trail. Cherry Creek Falls was full and roaring, with mist coming off of the frothing cascade.
I was sad that Cedar and Luna missed the hiking since they could have done these, but it was a great day anyway.
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