05-02-24
A
week earlier Gary and I discussed
a wildflower hike at Umtanum Ridge. There was a running race on the
Yakima Skyline Trail along the ridge. We chose a first hike at Cashmere
Canyons. This weekend was looking like two days of rain. Most of the
week had high winds at Umtanum Ridge. Gary was on the east coast. John
was free and Thursday looked to have light winds and sunshine. I took a
day off work for the trip. We met in Issaquah at 6:45 am and headed
east. Traffic was light and the sky was mostly clear. We went over
Snoqualmie Pass and exited I-90 in Ellensburg. We then headed down the
Yakima Canyon Road to the Umtanum Recreation Area parking lot. East of
Snoqualmie Pass the temperature was as low as 32F. It was just over 40F
at the trailhead. I have done this hike many times since my first visit
in 1991. More recently, I had done it in 2006 and 2015. Nine years
between those trips and nine years since. John had not done the hike
before. There was one car in the lot and an overnighter. My Senior
America The Beautiful pass did work at this BLM sight. We arrived at
8:17 am and were on our way at 8:23 am. There is a suspension bridge to
get across the Yakima River. It has been rebuilt since my last visit to
the trailhead in 2018. It seems sturdier now. We ducked under the
railroad track and started up Umtanum Canyon.
Driving down the canyon we could see clouds to the south. Overhead we saw nothing but blue. The trail going left up the side canyon comes up quickly. We started to see wildflowers almost immediately. Checking out my photos, we saw lupine, desert parsley, and prairie stars first. Phlox showed up along much of our route in colors from pink to white. Yellowish Thompson paintbrush also was seen from bottom to the top. We saw larkspur and some arrowleaf balsamroot. We saw some big birds fly over the side canyon and land on the other side. They had bright red heads. Are vultures a good sign? We were partly in shade but the sun was rising and we would be in sunshine for the next 8 hours. There is no shade. That is a good reason to do this trip early before the heat arrives. For the second week in a row, we saw a few death camas but not many. We saw a lot of yellow wildflowers. I recognized the Hooker's balsamroot. Hawkweed was another yellow flower.
Brodiaea is one I recognized but could not recall the name until I was back home. It has lots of blue flowers. Ballhead waterleaf showed up in a lot of places. We came down a different route and saw the same flowers at similar elevations. With all the wildflowers our pace was very slow. At the top of the canyon we crossed the very small creek and headed to the right. This is the point where we closed our loop many hour later. There are some big trees here. I believe they are aspens. We continued to see wildflowers as we ascended. There were many but not a ground covering dense pack. We noticed some kind of lizard. John took a very close up photos. I managed to get one after he moved. It was not quite as good. With our slow pace, I expected to see someone hike or run on by us. The ridge top was now in front of us. We still had a lot of elevation to gain. We had some flat spots and then steep sections. John noticed some sage violets. We see a lot of yellow violets on the west side of the mountains but not many violet ones.
I was surprised that we had not seen any bluebells. The week before we saw white bluebells. I was afraid we would not see any. They we saw them. Some big patches. We saw more of them up to the ridge top. I hoped to see some lupine and yellow arrowleaf balsamroot. Later we did see some on the ridge top. Lower down, we saw some lupine and Hooker's balsamroot. Looking back, we could now see snowy peaks to the northwest. The Stuart Range was easy to pick out with Fortune and Ingalls to the west. Farther west we could see Lemah and peaks north of Snoqualmie Pass. I read a trip report from a week earlier that mentioned a cross country descent that went through a huge patch of Bonneville shooting stars. High on the slope we found small patches of very dark purple shooting stars. That was a treat. Closer to the top the slope became very steep. It eased as we neared the ridge top road. I saw two yellow and black butterflies just off the trail. The posed for photos. We reached the road at 10:53 am. We had traveled 2.4 miles in 2:25. All the wildflower photos accounted for the very slow pace. There was a little breeze on top. A trail continued on the other side of the road.
We decided to continue on the trail as it was still ascending. The top was not far beyond. We could see the top and bottom of Mt. Rainier but the middle was behind a cloud. Mt. Adams was in the clouds all day. The Selah area was seen to the south. We saw a lot of low yellow flowers at the highest point with some blue lupine mixed in. We went a little way down the south side when John noticed some very bright and colorful flowers. Those were hedgehog cacti. I had seen them on a few earlier trips but not many. I have seen them in a few other places. The colors are incredible but I have rarely seen them. Timing is everything. They do not bloom for long. These were not fully open but they were still so very colorful. Once we saw the first ones we started to see more... and more. We saw dozens and dozens of cacti and many had multiple blooms. Since we may not see them again for years we took a lot of photos. Seeing shooting stars and hedgehog cactus made this a very successful trip. We still had a lot more trail to hike.
We started back to the road at 11:27 am. 34 minutes went by very fast. We decided to head east on the ridge top trail. To the west the slopes looked less colorful. There were some wildflowers alongside the road. I even saw a couple hedgehogs. We also began to see bighead clover. The road has ups and downs. We came to a spot below the ridge top on the north side where the wind was partly blocked. This was a good spot of lunch. It was still windy enough that we put on wind shirts. The views to the north were excellent. We stopped at 12:09 pm. We started moving again at 12:28 pm. We spotted the point where we would descend from the ridge top and kept going eat. Big puffy clouds had blown in. The bright blue sky and puffy white clouds looked great. We were taking sky shots now. We started to see spots with blue and yellow flowers mixed together. Lupine is usually later than balsamroot so the spot when both are in bloom is short. Our timing was very good. We met the first person of the day here. She was doing a version of our route in reverse. We had a long talk about hikes and wildflowers.
W had a few drops and climbs and I saw some more hedgehogs off the road. We went cross-country to the next high point. The number of cactus seen were incredible. It was far more than I have seen in one day. Some had 1 flower and some up to 8. It was just amazing. We spent a long time going very slowly. We headed back to the road where it began the long steady drop towards Roza Creek and the Yakima River. It was time to head back. We were walking into the wind heading east and it was cold. Now, heading the opposite direction it was wind free. We quickly began to overheat. At the spot where we would leave the ridge top we took another break. Time for food, water, and taking off our wind shirts. While we did that, three other hikers went by lower on the slope. They were heading down the route we planned to take.
We started down at 1:50 pm. This ridge down was much less steep at the top. The flower show continued most of the way down. It was not as good as on top but not bad at all. There was a nice display of lupine and Hooker's balsamroot. We could see the other guys out ahead. A flat rocky section looked like perfect bitterroot habitat. We looked closely and I saw some bitterroot leaves and then just the flower pods. They are still probably a week or so short of blooming. We occasionally looked back to the slope we hiked down. Some yellow and red flowers looked like some type of buckwheat. As we descended, the Stuart Range slid out of sight. My last view was of the peaks centered in a low gap in the ridges. The group ahead went left and headed for the spot at the top of the side canyon we took out of Umtanum Canyon. We aimed a little right of center. They took us down to the old road that is above the Yakima River. I had been on that route years ago.
We reached the road with a good view down the river. I did not look closely at the map and we had three ridges to go around on our way back. We made good time on this smoother grade. Once back at the big trees we closed our loop. Now we just had the steep rocky trail down into the canyon. We finally reached the bottom of the side canyon. It was just a couple more minutes back to the suspension bridge. We found several people fishing in the river. The lot had more cars than in the morning but it was well short of half full. I were back at the car at 4:01 pm. For the day, we hiked 9 miles with 2600' of elevation gain. We were out for 7:38 though a lot of that was not hiking. We each ended up with about 400 photos. The flower show was not really big profusions of color but most of the route had flowers in bloom. The hedgehog cactus display was really terrific. That alone made the hike memorable. The fact we saw only two groups and a total of four other people on a popular spring hike was an added bonus. My last hike here was 9 years ago and the next was 9 years before that. I really need to go back often as I did two decades ago.
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Trips - 2024
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Driving down the canyon we could see clouds to the south. Overhead we saw nothing but blue. The trail going left up the side canyon comes up quickly. We started to see wildflowers almost immediately. Checking out my photos, we saw lupine, desert parsley, and prairie stars first. Phlox showed up along much of our route in colors from pink to white. Yellowish Thompson paintbrush also was seen from bottom to the top. We saw larkspur and some arrowleaf balsamroot. We saw some big birds fly over the side canyon and land on the other side. They had bright red heads. Are vultures a good sign? We were partly in shade but the sun was rising and we would be in sunshine for the next 8 hours. There is no shade. That is a good reason to do this trip early before the heat arrives. For the second week in a row, we saw a few death camas but not many. We saw a lot of yellow wildflowers. I recognized the Hooker's balsamroot. Hawkweed was another yellow flower.
Brodiaea is one I recognized but could not recall the name until I was back home. It has lots of blue flowers. Ballhead waterleaf showed up in a lot of places. We came down a different route and saw the same flowers at similar elevations. With all the wildflowers our pace was very slow. At the top of the canyon we crossed the very small creek and headed to the right. This is the point where we closed our loop many hour later. There are some big trees here. I believe they are aspens. We continued to see wildflowers as we ascended. There were many but not a ground covering dense pack. We noticed some kind of lizard. John took a very close up photos. I managed to get one after he moved. It was not quite as good. With our slow pace, I expected to see someone hike or run on by us. The ridge top was now in front of us. We still had a lot of elevation to gain. We had some flat spots and then steep sections. John noticed some sage violets. We see a lot of yellow violets on the west side of the mountains but not many violet ones.
I was surprised that we had not seen any bluebells. The week before we saw white bluebells. I was afraid we would not see any. They we saw them. Some big patches. We saw more of them up to the ridge top. I hoped to see some lupine and yellow arrowleaf balsamroot. Later we did see some on the ridge top. Lower down, we saw some lupine and Hooker's balsamroot. Looking back, we could now see snowy peaks to the northwest. The Stuart Range was easy to pick out with Fortune and Ingalls to the west. Farther west we could see Lemah and peaks north of Snoqualmie Pass. I read a trip report from a week earlier that mentioned a cross country descent that went through a huge patch of Bonneville shooting stars. High on the slope we found small patches of very dark purple shooting stars. That was a treat. Closer to the top the slope became very steep. It eased as we neared the ridge top road. I saw two yellow and black butterflies just off the trail. The posed for photos. We reached the road at 10:53 am. We had traveled 2.4 miles in 2:25. All the wildflower photos accounted for the very slow pace. There was a little breeze on top. A trail continued on the other side of the road.
We decided to continue on the trail as it was still ascending. The top was not far beyond. We could see the top and bottom of Mt. Rainier but the middle was behind a cloud. Mt. Adams was in the clouds all day. The Selah area was seen to the south. We saw a lot of low yellow flowers at the highest point with some blue lupine mixed in. We went a little way down the south side when John noticed some very bright and colorful flowers. Those were hedgehog cacti. I had seen them on a few earlier trips but not many. I have seen them in a few other places. The colors are incredible but I have rarely seen them. Timing is everything. They do not bloom for long. These were not fully open but they were still so very colorful. Once we saw the first ones we started to see more... and more. We saw dozens and dozens of cacti and many had multiple blooms. Since we may not see them again for years we took a lot of photos. Seeing shooting stars and hedgehog cactus made this a very successful trip. We still had a lot more trail to hike.
We started back to the road at 11:27 am. 34 minutes went by very fast. We decided to head east on the ridge top trail. To the west the slopes looked less colorful. There were some wildflowers alongside the road. I even saw a couple hedgehogs. We also began to see bighead clover. The road has ups and downs. We came to a spot below the ridge top on the north side where the wind was partly blocked. This was a good spot of lunch. It was still windy enough that we put on wind shirts. The views to the north were excellent. We stopped at 12:09 pm. We started moving again at 12:28 pm. We spotted the point where we would descend from the ridge top and kept going eat. Big puffy clouds had blown in. The bright blue sky and puffy white clouds looked great. We were taking sky shots now. We started to see spots with blue and yellow flowers mixed together. Lupine is usually later than balsamroot so the spot when both are in bloom is short. Our timing was very good. We met the first person of the day here. She was doing a version of our route in reverse. We had a long talk about hikes and wildflowers.
W had a few drops and climbs and I saw some more hedgehogs off the road. We went cross-country to the next high point. The number of cactus seen were incredible. It was far more than I have seen in one day. Some had 1 flower and some up to 8. It was just amazing. We spent a long time going very slowly. We headed back to the road where it began the long steady drop towards Roza Creek and the Yakima River. It was time to head back. We were walking into the wind heading east and it was cold. Now, heading the opposite direction it was wind free. We quickly began to overheat. At the spot where we would leave the ridge top we took another break. Time for food, water, and taking off our wind shirts. While we did that, three other hikers went by lower on the slope. They were heading down the route we planned to take.
We started down at 1:50 pm. This ridge down was much less steep at the top. The flower show continued most of the way down. It was not as good as on top but not bad at all. There was a nice display of lupine and Hooker's balsamroot. We could see the other guys out ahead. A flat rocky section looked like perfect bitterroot habitat. We looked closely and I saw some bitterroot leaves and then just the flower pods. They are still probably a week or so short of blooming. We occasionally looked back to the slope we hiked down. Some yellow and red flowers looked like some type of buckwheat. As we descended, the Stuart Range slid out of sight. My last view was of the peaks centered in a low gap in the ridges. The group ahead went left and headed for the spot at the top of the side canyon we took out of Umtanum Canyon. We aimed a little right of center. They took us down to the old road that is above the Yakima River. I had been on that route years ago.
We reached the road with a good view down the river. I did not look closely at the map and we had three ridges to go around on our way back. We made good time on this smoother grade. Once back at the big trees we closed our loop. Now we just had the steep rocky trail down into the canyon. We finally reached the bottom of the side canyon. It was just a couple more minutes back to the suspension bridge. We found several people fishing in the river. The lot had more cars than in the morning but it was well short of half full. I were back at the car at 4:01 pm. For the day, we hiked 9 miles with 2600' of elevation gain. We were out for 7:38 though a lot of that was not hiking. We each ended up with about 400 photos. The flower show was not really big profusions of color but most of the route had flowers in bloom. The hedgehog cactus display was really terrific. That alone made the hike memorable. The fact we saw only two groups and a total of four other people on a popular spring hike was an added bonus. My last hike here was 9 years ago and the next was 9 years before that. I really need to go back often as I did two decades ago.
 Crossing The Bridge |
 Starting Up |
 First Lupine |
 Prairie Stars |
 Pink Phlox |
 Umtanum Canyon |
 Forget-Me-Nots? |
 Arrowleaf Balsamroot |
 Turkey Vultures |
 Balsamroot Close Up |
 Small Flower |
 Larkspur |
 Big Trees |
 Brodiaea |
 Ballhead Waterleaf |
 Death Camas |
 Hawkweed |
 View Back |
 John & Phlox |
 Another Yellow Flower |
 Mountains In Sight |
 Backlit Balsamroot |
 Lizard |
 Bluebells |
 Sage Violets |
 Peaking Balsamroot |
 Lupine Balsamroot |
 Stuart Range |
 Shooting Stars |
 Many Shooting Stars |
 Closer Shooting Stars |
 Basalt Walls |
 Our Route Up |
 Los Of Colors |
 Butterflies |
 Mt. Rainier |
 Peaks & Clouds |
 Flowers & Sky |
 First Hedgehog Cactus |
 Perfect Cactus Color |
 Cloud Shadows |
 Blue & White Lupine |
 John At Work |
 Lots Of Yellow |
 On The Road Again |
 Clouds & Colors |
 More Cactus Color |
 Fantastic Colors |
 Bighead Clover |
 Small Cactus Flower |
 Four Flowers |
 Magenta & Yellow |
 John On Ridge Top |
 Turnaround Time |
 John & Clouds |
 Bitterroot |
 Three Hikers |
 More Great Colors |
 More Cloud Shadows |
 Pink Penstemon |
 Buckwheat |
 John & Grasses |
 Mt. Stuart In The Gap |
 Yakima River Below |
Trips - 2024
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