One of the first areas to clear of ice, snow, and then mud are the Valleyview benchlands.    There are 5 areas that can be hiked.    One of the least well-known areas is the Silt Cliffs Triangle bounded by Highland Drive, Owl Road, and Valleyview Drive.   The easiest access is from Valleyview Arena.    There are a number of double tracks, single tracks, and rim routes that can be combined for a 1 – 2 hour hike.    On this day near the middle of March, there was a little bit of mud, but it will be dry by now.

There are silt cliffs on the eastern and northern side of the triangle, as well as on the sides of various gullies.

It is an area of sagebrush grassland, but there are sinkholes, gullies, ridges, and a number of interesting erosion features.    There are a small number of trees, all of which are in gullies or on north-facing slopes.  There are fine views in every direction, but the drawback is there are also views of the Owl Road Dump (just don’t look that way).

A number of photos are posted in a gallery, each with a caption.    Click an image for a lightbox view and the caption.

a single track access

on the grassland benchland

silt cliffs over Highland Drive

over rolling hills and gullies to Mt. Peter

erosion gullies

a discarded relic

snags in the grasslands

WWII bunker

snags on the grass

a tick

A video of the hike is also included here, embedded into this post, but it can be seen on YouTube too.

The other benchland areas on the south side of the river are the Lower Rose Trails, Valleyview Nature Park, the Valleyview Spines area, and the Upland Trails.    There are articles on all of them on this website and they will all be hiked this spring.