On a cool February day we hiked up trails in the Deep Lake area to a hill above the lake.    The Deep Lake Outer Loop winds up sagebrush grasslands and open forested slopes to the Grasslands Community Trail on a benchland southwest of the lake, then comes to a junction just south of the lake.    We though that the outer loop route would be icy on the north side of the hill, so we went to the top of the hill for the view instead.

A single track trail has some steeper sections as it climbs to the open grasslands.

At 2.3 km we arrived at a point above Deep Lake.    Trails continue around the lake, but we contoured around the south side of the hill to climb a single track route to the viewpoint.

We hiked to the top of the hill to enjoy the view, then back down and then chose to follow a different route back to the trailhead for a 5.6 km, two hour hike.

This was a good choice for a winter hike in a fairly dry winter in the valley.    Our plan is to return to do the longer loop in spring.