We traveled to Lytton, then took the reaction ferry across the Fraser River.    We drove to the trailhead at the Stein River to hike upriver in Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park.   The mouth of the river is a dry Interior Plateau zone, but as we hiked west, we went through a transition zone to a wetter and cooler area.   Most of the flowering plants were similar to the Kamloops area.   The upriver narrow valley is sheltered by the steep north-facing slope and we started to see cedars and damp forest trees, shrubs, and forbs.   We hiked about 4.5 km up the river before turning back.   Shared here are a few flowering plants from the east (lower) end of the river valley.

• silverleaf phacelia (Phacelia hastata)
• field chickweed (Cerastium arvense)
• old man’s whiskers (Geum triflorum)
• alumroot (Heuchera cylindrica)
• red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)
• heart-leaved Arnica (Arnica cordifolia)
• woodland star (Lithorphragma parviflorum)
• Western Polypody (Polypodium hesperium)
• Oregon boxwood (Paxisitima myrsinites)
• upland larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum)

We saw a number of other interesting plants, but this post shares a few photos from the nature hike in Google Photos album (link) in slideshow.

We traveled south to Boston Bar, then hiked the next day to the Alexandra Bridge, then to Hope where we hiked the Thacker Mountain Trail.    A follow-up post will be published soon on these nature hikes.   See Kamloops Trails for more on the Stein River Trail.