As winter snows disappeared and the ground started to defrost, I headed into the Dewdrop Range on mostly dry terrain, hiking over the hills and dropping into gullies to explore frozen waterfalls.   The route followed the Bluebird Trail at the start and finish, but wound south on rougher terrain overlooking Kamloops Lake.

 

On a blue sky day I followed a double track from the Frederick Road down to the edge of the benchland where it started to drop off into deep gullies.

The Bluebird Hills are mostly grassland and sagebrush with a few trees in protected areas.

At the top of the gully was an old corral, then the route dropped steeply following a drainage gully.

A waterfall drops down the rock slopes into a gorge.    In a protected area, the ice had not yet begun to melt.   The gorge continues in cascades all the way down to Kamloops Lake, but the terrain is difficult going down and back out.

On the west side of the gorge are the Frederick Bluffs, a series of rocky hills overlooking Kamloops Lake.

I climbed out of the gorge then wound up over the hills to viewpoints.

 

The Bluebird Hills are mostly more rounded and lower than the hills of Frederick Bluffs or the hills near Battle Bluff.

I spotted another frozen waterfall from a viewpoint so I worked my way over to the base of the falls for a closer look.

From the second waterfall, I contoured over the Bluebird Hills, past ponds, forested dales, rocky hills, and open ridges.

The whole loop was 5.2 km, but much of the route was slow-going progress over rougher terrain in the frozen gullies.   An easier loop can be taken over the hills for a two hour hike in the Dewdrop Range.

 

Note – All photos taken by the author, but then artistically rendered to interpret my impressions of the landscapes I experienced.