In mid-March I hiked across the dry slopes on the north shore of Kamloops Lake.   I started at the Savona Graveyard and hiked east to the Sabiston Creek area and back, a 9.3 km route.  This area is one of our driest areas,  and rocky, gravelly soils sustain sagebrush, rabbit brush, grasses and cactus.    In gullies there are a few shrubs and some perennials, but at this time of year, the only green growth was emerging annual grasses.

Abundant carpets of prickly pear cactus (opuntia fragilis) were reddish from a winter under the snow, but will green-up in spring.

There were almost no trees in the area, except at higher elevations.   A few Rocky Mountain junipers (juniperus scopulorum) dotted the hillside.   The twisted wood of the junipers invites a stylized version of the photo.

Down by the beach were several patches of smooth sumac (rhus glabra), bare stemmed, but with red capsules still on the ends of stems.

The twisted wood of sagebrush littered the hillsides, this one covered in orange crustose lichen.

Soon forbs will appear and the same hike will have some spring wildflowers for a short season before the area fully dries in the late spring sun.