The Lac du Bois Grasslands provide many opportunities for winter exploration.   A parking lot is established on the east side of the Lac du Bois Road (at N50 46.612 W120 25.903). about 8.6 km past the cattleguard.   A series of kiosks can now be found along the trail into the central bowl of ponds, grasslands and glaciated hills.   In spring this is an area of nesting grouse, curlews, ducks, and grassland birds.   Pothole ponds and shallow lakes sit in the low spots.   Many were kettles scoured by the last ice age.  In winter, snow covers everything leaving a blanket over the grasslands.  

Follow the trail into the bowl and head north to Island Lake.   Continue past the lake to the Grasslands Esker, a 2km long sinuous ridge running from the Lac du Nois area down to Long Lake.   Climb the winding ridge esker and marvel at the esker carved by under-glacier streams from the ice age.   The esker follows the direction of the flow of the glacier, west to east.   Follow the esker down to viewpoints of the Long Lake chain.  Climb the hill south to the grassland hills above Long Lake.   Set your own route and then loop back to the entrance trail.   We snowshoed the circuit at the end of February on a sunny, winter day.

This area is rarely snowshoed in winter, but it is a good area to hike from spring through fall.  Here, Island Lake sits at the bottom of the central bowl:

The Grassland Esker flanks the north end of the bowl:

Long Lake lies in the valley bottom to the east, best seen from the hilltop.

The snowshoe track is now set for this 5.5km loop in the snowy grasslands.