There is a small pullout and parking area in the middle grasslands on the right side of a curve (about 8.5 km up from the from the cattleguard). It is a good trailhead/start for a winter loop on the snow. We followed the track around the hills past Island Lake to the Grasslands Esker.

All of the area has glaciated features with moraine ridges, kames, potholes, erratics, and eskers. The small potholes are marshy in spring.

Some larger pothole trenches make shallow lakes in the collection spots between the hills.

One of the highlights of the area is a 1 km long esker. Eskers were created as under-the-ice glacial streams deposited silts and gravels over a long period in the last Ice Age (11 000 years ago). We usually hike along the esker on our middle grasslands loops.

This hike was on a sunny winter day.

Our group created a shallow trench in the snow as we climbed over ridges and hills on our 4.7 km hike.

We try to stop for lunch each time at a hilltop overlooking Long Lake. The Batchelor Range is on the east side, bove the middle grasslands.

Valley fog covered the Thompson River Valleys, creeping up into the hills below us on the south side, so we packed up our lunch and completed the loop back to the parking area.

As we headed west we could see our track crossing the hills.

This is such a superb route that we enjoy doing it about three times a year. We will return in the spring to enjoy the wildflowers on the hills and the waterfowl, birds, small mammals, and insects around the wet spots.