On the first of April I started a 6.25 km hike from the end of McLeod Drive (at the junction of McLeod Rd. and Uplands Rd. in Barnhartvale).    Trails start at the gas pipeline track and they fan out across the sagebrush grassland benchland, through gullies, and up into the hills.    For this day, the hike was a series of single track trails through the grasslands above the gullies, out to viewpoints,  and then back to cross the heads of gullies for more loops.    The final loop went down one of the larger gullies, then back up onto another benchland.    The solo hike took about 1.75 hours.

 

The hike started through a north-slope open forest route, then emerged into open grasslands overlooking the gullies.

At several viewpoints, there were views down the river, across to the South Thompson River Valley silt cliffs, into incised erosion gullies in the benchlands, and to the ridges on both the west and east sides of the valley.    Click an image for a lightbox (larger) view.

The trailhead also provides access to trails which climb into the hills to the south.     Several loop routes can be done and I will be back to do one of them later in spring.