We drove southeast through Falkland, then we continued on a series of backroads to the trailhead for the Rose – Swanson Trails, in the forested trails to the west of Armstrong.   We had hiked here before, so we chose this time to vary our route from previous hikes.    We hiked through the forest on the north slopes of the hill toward the southeast and then out to the top of bluffs looking south, southeast, and east into the North Okanagan.    Our route was about 7 km, but we included some breaks, so we were on the trails for about 2.5 hours.

The main trail was a wide track through cedar, birch, and lodgepole (and jack pine) forests.

From the bluffs we had great views.   We could see over to Armstrong, but also south toward Vernon.    In this view are Otter Lake, Swan Lake, and Okanagan Lake.

Our route included a loop which went down through gullies, then climbed back up open ridges.

From other viewpoints we could see east ad northeast to Enderby and the distant Monashee Ranges.

On this day there were a few other hikers along the trail, but since there are many route choices, we had a quiet hike, enjoying many wildflowers and the forested trails.   It takes about 1.3 hours to get to the Rose – Swanson Trails, but this is good choice for a spring or fall hike.