On a sunny summer day we hiked half of the Grasslands Community Trail from the top, then we looped back on a Connector Trail above McQueen Creek for an 8.6 km hike.  

We parked at the trailhead and followed the signed trail past Griffin Lake. 

After 1 km through the forest, the trail emerges into an open area with several lakes and ponds.   We hiked past Meadow Pond, then wound through the forest to the east, following a ridge above McQueen Creek. 

We stayed on the Grasslands Community Trail and at 3.3 km we crossed McQueen Creek on a footbridge.   A second footbridge was downstream, then at about the 4 km mark we spotted the junction (at N50 48.962 N120 23.876) for the start of the Connector Trail, angling uphill, bearing north.   It wound up the hill through open forest.  

There were two viewpoints on the way up.    In this grasslands meadow we could see over to Hadley (Batchelor) Ridge and across the valley Strawberry Hill.   At a previous viewpoint we could see down the Long Lake trench into the Lac du Bois Grasslands.  We hiked up to the McQueen Creek FSR and followed it back to the start.   A few moments of this hike are captured in a short video.

More Information:

• Grasslands Community Trail