The trails on the western end of Kenna Cartwright Park offer 4 season hiking opportunities , especially if we start at the gate on Hillside Drive past the prison.   This is out of the park but is a well-used access point to the main trails – Ponderosa Trail, Sunset and Mesa Trails.   There is also a single track loop that goes west to the fenceline then loops back to either the Pipeline route or up to Sunset.   We usually pick a combination of trails to do a loop, depending on how long we want to be out on the trail (the Mesa Trail is one of our favorites so it is often included).

On this last outing, we chose the Single Track Trail (most often used by dog walkers), the Sunset Trail out and back (for the view), then the Ponderosa Trail, a 3.6 km loop.   From the viewpoint on the Sunset Trail we looked down Kamloops Lake for 25km to Six Mile Point.

To the southeast the grasslands rise up to the forested hills of Greenstone Mountain, Mt. Durand, and Savona Mountain.

By the first part of July, the soils were baked dry and most of the wildflowers were already gone, but a few sagebrush mariposa lilies, yarrow, sedum, some early rabbitbrush, pussytoes, and small-leafed daisies still bloomed not far off the trail.   There are really no shade trees on this side of the park so it is best done in the morning.   This is also a superb spot to watch the sun go down on any clear evening.