When the winter snows accumulate, we like to go to the upper end of the grasslands to snowshoe in the area to the south of McQueen Lake.   There are some old tracks to follow, but with the layers of snow, these are only a rough guide.   We make our own tracks.   We park at the kiosk this side of McQueen Lake property and then walked down (south) to the edge of the forest to follow an old track east.   Maps and directions were detailed last winter (click the link below):

• Snowshoe Routes: Clay Lake – Stony Lake Tour 
• Parking – N50 49.280 W120 26.702
• Trailhead – N49.166 W120 26.754
• Clay Lake (homestead) – N50 49.166 W120 25.919
• Stony Lake Shores – N50 49.246 W120 25.919
• Lowest pond (turn north) – N50 48.379 W120 26.877

On this last trek, we made our own route over to Clay Lake, then walked along the surface of the lake to the old homesteads.   We made our own tack through the forest to the upper “bay” in the grasslands, then wound our way across the sidehills to a point high above Stony Lake.   We enjoyed striding down the steeper slopes to the lake, then followed a single-track trail down to the lowest ponds and worked our way back north, parallel to the road, a total of 6.4km.

With no snow for about a month, there were lots of snowshoe tracks we could have followed inscribing different loops through the open forest, aspen groves, and upper grasslands.   This is a perfect area for snowshoeing, one we will do every year.