In a winter of mild weather and limited snowfall, we can easily explore the hills of the Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area, stomping on the snowy slopes, making our own route through the sagebrush, exploring ridges, gullies, and ponds of the park. Red Hill has reddish- colored rock and orange-red dirt and when motorized vehicles were allowed on the hill, it was a mass of red streaks. Today the grass has mostly recovered from that damage and the eastern slope has a more muted color.

There is a good pullout and parking area at the edge of Red Hill, 5.5 km up from the cattleguard on the Lac du Bois Road. A gate provides access to the hill and some faint tracks head off left and right.

On this grey day, we climbed to the top of Red Hill for the view. The Batchelor Range is the upper border on the eastern side of the park.

Below the hill is a hidden pond, frozen with a skiff of snow.

We worked our way down the hill to the edge of that pond and circled the north end to the ridges on the east side.

From the top of the next ridge, we could look back west at the pond at the foot of Red Hill.

Our route was an eclectic one, climbing hills and ridges for new views in a loop around the ponds. A second large pond lies 1 km to the east of the road.

Each new hill provide a different view of the other hills and ponds of the Red Hill Basin.

As we closed the loop, the first rays of sunshine broke through the winter cloud cover on the south end of Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area.

We stomped on the snow in our boots for 3.25 km, but with lots of up and down, adding up to about 1.5 hours in the middle grasslands. We will do this hike again next winter.