Boyd Bay Wetlands
We were intrigued by the land shapes and open spaces at the west end of Green Lake. We checked the land status of the area and found that it was mostly Crown Land so we went to explore the area.
Crown lands with grazing licenses will have cattle in the area and it is our obligation to close gates, keep clear of any cattle, and respect licensee site properties, so we quietly walked the area, leaving nothing but footprints. In late summer, the sections of land between ponds were much drier than in spring and early summer.
There are no trails on the west side except for a few faint game trails along some of the ponds and shorelines.
Surrounding the wetlands are grass, reeds, and riparian vegetation.
Points of land jut out into Boyd Bay, the western end of Green Lake.
The turquoise waters of the lake stand in contrast with the yellows and dark greens of the forest and grasslands.
There are a number of islands, some of which we can walk out to when the wetlands dry up in late summer.
Aspen groves border the western side of these lands.
We looped back through the deciduous forest to the road after hiking for 2 hours, seeing no one. A few ducks and raptors were spotted, but the whole area was very quiet.
Green Lake is always nice to visit. There are many snowmobile and ATV tracks in the area, some of which pass ponds and wetlands, but it is nice too to walk in an area that can only be reached only on foot. Next time we will go in spring to watch the waterfowl rituals of spring on the ponds and wetlands of the Boyd Bay area.