Island Lake, Grasslands Esker, and Long Lake

On a sunny mid-November day I hiked through the middle grasslands from a designated trailhead in Lac du Bois Grasslands Park. A single track trail winds through the open grasslands past lakes and glaciated features. On this day I did a counter-clockwise loop that went east across the grasslands hills.

On this day I did a counter-clockwise loop that went first to a viewpoint overlooking Long Lake. The alkaline lake is one of 5 lakes ( a total length of 3.5 km) in a low point between grasslands hills. The drainage currently flows north, then east into McQueen Creek, then down to the North Thompson River. When the ice was built up during the last Ice Age, the drainage would have likely also flowed south toward the North Shore of Kamloops.

From the lookout I crossed the open hills to the Grasslands Esker. This sinuous glacial feature is about 2 km long, the deposits of an under-ice glacial stream running from Lac du Bois down to the Long Lake drainage.

From the top of the esker we can look across Island Lake, a series of shallow lakes (former potholes). I then hiked back on a single track on the west side of Long Lake.