Wenas to Asotin

After a delightful field trip up Umptanum Creek trail with Deb and the Get Intimate With the Shrubsteppe (G.I.S.S.) festival, I decided to drive the upper Umptanum Creek Road and find some sage steppe and other birds. It was a delightful day and I spent quite some time watching a couple lovely Vesper Sparrows flit from sage brush to sage brush showing off their rufous shoulder patches and singing gleefully into the skies.

Vesper Sparrow - Upper Umptanum Road - Yakima County, WA

My destination was the Wenas Campground. This is a dispersed campground on state-owned land in a beautiful ponderosa pine forest setting in the central Cascades between Ellensburg and Yakima. Every year, the various Audubon societies from around WA State get together for a sort of old-fashioned “Woodstock” type campout weekend. I’ve been to the campout once - and will go again, maybe even this year! Being a Sunday night, the dispersed camping area was completely open. It was blissful - no other campers or people, at all. Just lots and lots - and lots - of birds. After I parked the van a great spot with clear skies (so I could get a Starlink connection as I’d be working remote the next two days), I got out and immediately picked up about 8 new birds for the year. Not lifers - but new birds for the year. By the end of the day, I had Cassin’s Vireo, Cassin’s Finch, Gray Flycatcher, Nashville Warbler, Mountain Chickadee, Western Wood-Pewee, and Chipping Sparrow on my 2026 list! What a great evening. Later in the night, I got my first Common Poorwills of the year. Always a treat to hear their little “Poor-will, poor-will” call throughout the evening.

Merlin at camp for a couple nights - Wenas Campground - Yakima County

This campground is notorious for little rodents getting into car engines overnight and making nests and/or chewing wires. So, a common practice is to raise your engine hood and hope nothing gets in. Not only did I raise my hood, I also had this flashing strobe light (intentionally made for this exact reason) that I placed near the engine. Apparently, the flashing light overnight distracts rodents. Whether I needed to do any of this or not - I had zero issues with rodents during my 3 days at this camp.

The weather was simply sublime with temps getting into around 70-75 each day and into the 40s at night. I grilled out a hamburger one night and had a backpacker-style freeze-dried meal another night. Without a burn ban (so far), I was able to use my little Solostove Mesa XL for some evening reflection and a Manhattan.

Gray Flycatcher - Wenas Campground - Yakima County

Over the next day and a half, I worked remotely from the van. My co-workers remarked that my voice is more clear using Starlink than when I’m at home or in the office! It really is amazing to be able to pack up and spend time outdoors and yet have the technology and connectivity to work remotely (on occasion!) in the middle of completely disconnected locations in the mountains. During my short visit to Wenas, a couple people would arrive during the day. A bird photographer camped in his car one night. Otherwise, it was blissfully empty of people.

After my Wenas experience, I packed up Merlin and set my sights South and East. I needed to get to the far SE Corner for the annual Washington Ornithological Society (WOS) Conference. Even though I was about 3 hours from Seattle, I was still about 3-4 hours from the WOS conference! I decided to try and pick up some birds around Walla Walla area. While in the vicinity, I stopped by the Whitman National Historic Site to learn about a topic I didn’t know anything about - the Whitman Mission of the 1840s. It’s an interesting story - and I’m sure there are various interpretations of the timeline. I think we can all agree that: it was a “different” time.

Whitman Mission National History Site - Walla Walla, Washington

I made my way to a new-to-me campground - Charbonneau Park - along Lake Sacajawea outside Walla Walla, Washington. It was a nice campground - and, it was nice during the week. I bet weekends are PACKED full of people who enjoy boating on the big reservoir. Unfortunately, a HUGE windstorm was in the forecast, so I had to make a Plan B for the next day (Wednesday) as that was supposed to be a big birding day.

Merlin at Charbonneau Park outside Walla Walla Washington

Sure enough, after a nice quiet sleep in Merlin, I awoke the next morning to extremely high winds that shook the van. Birding would be a challenge. So, I had to change my route to try and find places that weren’t too exposed. That would prove to be tricky. I did manage to get a Franklin’s Gull and Forester’s Tern at the Walla Walla River Delta birding hotspot. But, I almost lost my scope a few times in the strong winds! I kept driving East and made my way to the Lewis & Clark Trail State Park by mid-afternoon. The winds there weren’t quite a strong, so I walked around the campground a bit and was impressed with the birdlife within the mostly empty campground and the day-use across the main highway. Yellow Warblers were absolutely EVERYWHERE singing their “Sweet sweet, I’m so sweet” song.

After another nice quiet night in Merlin, I awoke to a more calm day on Thursday. This was to be a big day for me - hopefully. I was on a mission to see a Green-tailed Towhee along Biscuit Ridge in the Washington Blue Mountains. So, after breakfast and a brief campground stroll, I drove through the beautiful rolling hills of the southern Palouse to drive up the beautiful Biscuit Ridge Road. I stopped at numerous spots along the way picking up MacGilivary’s Warbler and various Western Tanagers among other great migrating birds. Alas - after an hour of walking around a breezy ridge top, there was no Green-tailed Towhee to be seen (nor heard). Perhaps it was too early in the season for them at this location - one of the ONLY spots in the entire state of WA where these birds are typically found. It just means I need to make another visit sometime, but in June!

Unsuccessfully looking for Green-tailed Towhee - Biscuit Ridge Road, Columbia County, WA

While up on Biscuit Ridge Road, I came across another birder I know - who also had not seen/heard the bird. So, I drove back down and explored the Umatilla National Forest for a bit. I wanted some birds in Garfield County - and also to visit this forest. I bought a USFS map at the visitor center in Pomeroy, WA. I drove up and into the forest - a beautiful forest of Ponderosa Pine and Western Larch. Numerous campgrounds were scattered throughout the forest. I decided to take an “off the beaten path” out of the forest and towards Lewiston, ID where I’d be camping the next 3 nights with the WOS conference. I think I drove on some of the sketchiest (albeit still mostly OK) forest service roads which Merlin has yet ascended. After about 45 minutes of literally white-knuckle driving, we came into a section of forest with many downed trees from a massive windstorm last December. Some downed trees had been removed from the road. But, then, I came across a large Ponderosa Pine which fell over the road. A gap of maybe 6 feet was under the tree and the road. Way too small of a gap for my 10.5’ van. I don’t know that even most cars would fit under it. So, I did a 21-point turn to get find a better route out of the forest. Eventually, I made it out - but not after seeing a lovely Townsend’s Solitaire who seemed to be guiding me down a pathway out of the forest.

Out of the forest, I drove to and through Asotin County and to Lewiston, ID where I would camp for the next few nights during the WOS festival.