Day Hike - Tieton River Nature Trail

Our group of 11 met at 8:45 a.m. and parked on the north side of 12 at the Oak Creek Wildlife Center where a Discover Pass is required, parking is plentiful, and there are two outhouses.  Parking here necessitates crossing Highway 12 but seems safer than parking along 12 and walking alongside the highway on a narrow shoulder.  The trail is in great shape, follows the Tieton River upstream, and includes a suspension bridge about two miles up that most of our group enjoyed crossing.  The trees on this fall hike were near their peak in terms of color, and the aspen even "quaked" for us at a few points.  In the spring wildflower identification is fun; today we enjoyed trying to determine what some of the plants were by looking at their seedheads.   Our group sampled a few of the plentiful apples from trees along the way.