Lower sagebrush grassland benchlands dry out quickly in spring and we can enjoy good hiking in about a dozen areas.    The trails off the end of Uplands and McLeod Road in Barnhartvale provide 5 – 6 km of hiking mostly below the forest.    There may be some forest in the gullies, but the trails mostly go around the heads of the gullies.  

On a sunny early spring day there were a few birds, but the area was otherwise quiet.  

Over many years of hiking I have established some routes that combine trails, including one down through the gully and back up again. 

This is a scenic area to hike, but we need to be mindful of ticks in the grasslands.    They are a problem on all trails that aren’t paved, but we can take a few precautions and we refuse to let them scare us off the trails.  

across the valley to Mt. Peter

an old range fence

grasslands gullies below Sunset Hill

the sun over Sunrise Mountain

across the valley to Harper Mountain

the route for that day

grasslands benchlands below the douglas fir forested hills

A video shows more from a day of hiking on the Uplands Trails.