Umtanum Falls

 This is a great little hike near Ellensburg. We have been up here countless times, on our own time and with some classes in college. Its a great place for Plant taxonomy, Entomology and even herpetology (we didn't find any herps this trip) With all the flooding that occurred the end of May and June the falls were quite large (compared to just a trickle later in the summer)

Here are some things you can find on the trail:

A patch of Camas

Death Camas:

 

Larkspur: Delphinium nuttallianum

Thompson's Indian Paintbrush:

Arrowleaf Balsamroot: Balsamorhiza sagittata

Locoweed:

Prairie Star:

About 2 miles round trip

White River Falls

This wasn't really a hike but it was sooo amazing I had to post it. It's actually a campground, however due to the flooding its closed (lots of fallen trees). You can hike down to the campground from the top of the road. The White River Campground is just up the gravel road from the Twin Lakes trail head.

The sheer power of the water running through the rocks is amazing, you can feel it rumble under your feet!

You can see all the mist behind the rocks:

Twin Lakes

We stumbled upon this hike on accident. We were planning on hiking to Colchuck lake near Leavenworth, but the campground was full there, so we decided to go to lake Wenatchee area. I'm so glad we did because we camped for FREE right across the road from Twin Lakes trail head. We had our own private campsite right on White River (our own beach too!!!). The trail to the lake was full of little surprises, river crossings and huge cedar trees to name a few.The lake was quite except for the splash of fish jumping and songbirds chirping. My only gripe is to make sure to pack a mosquitoe net. I must say it was a beautiful and fun trip.

Here are some awesome things we found!

Indian Paintbrush

Garter Snake (we saw two and a baby)

 Western Tanger

Bleeding Heart Dicentra formosa

 A beautiful Orchid: Spotted Coralroot Corallorhiza maculata

Streamside bluebells

Queenscup Clintonia uniflora

Not sure what this little bird is...

 If you keep hiking past the first lake you reach the second lake (about 5 min away). Here there is an old hunting camping, and places to set up tents. 

Here is a view of the second lake 

Happy hiking!!

Trail Length: 8miles

Birds in Kittitas Valley

Western Tanager

Quail

Meadow Lark

Silver Falls

This is a great little hike if you are camping at Ohanapakosh Campground in the SE corner of Mt Rainier National Park.

If you look carefully on the sides of the trail you might see one of these little beauties, a fairy slipper orchid!!

I'm not sure what flower this little guy was....