Umtanum Hike

by Amy ~ May 26, 2008

We wanted to travel a little further away over the holiday weekend to hike a trail we normally wouldn’t have time to do. We picked a hike that was near Yakima (about 3 hours away) because the description said this hike was great for viewing wildlife (big horn sheep, elk, eagles etc.). It also mentioned that in late summer rattlenakes could be seen on the trail.

The terrain was much different than in Seattle. It was dry and dessert like with very few trees.

Within the first mile we saw our first snake (Z was out front as the “snake charmer”). Later we saw a snake then heard the infamous rattle…. Sara and I immediatly frooze and (freaked out!) and as soon as he slitherd off the path we hurridly passed. We warned two men passing us that there was a poisionous snake ahead and they responded “oh cool, can you show us where it is.” After shaking ground debris to make the snake rattle, they located the snake and picked it up (with a tool)! They offered us to take a photo but we didn’t want to get too close because that snake was NOT happy and we didn’t want to be around when they let it go. We saw 5 snakes that day and honestly, I think I want to stick to the Seattle area where there are no poisionous snakes. Watching for snakes kind of takes the fun out of hiking!!

View our Umtanum Hiking Photos