In spring we finally hiked the iconic Spirit Sands and Devil’s Punchbowl in the Spruce Woods Provincial Park with the whole family. Recommended as a unique landscape in the area, revealing our province’s glacial past, and the ever-changing nature of the land.

In his book, “Lake Agassiz”, Bill Redekop explains the origins of the Spirit Sands, also referred to as “Manitoba’s desert”, as a visible portion of the Assiniboine delta, deposited by the Assiniboine River as it drained into the glacial Lake Agassiz, which covered much of Manitoba. Today the sand is being quickly covered by vegetation, but this relatively small area of sand dunes remains visible.

We’d been informed, so I’m passing the info on to you, this area gets quite hot in summer. We visited on a warm spring day, and the sand area was quite warm, but fortunately clouds rolled in to keep it mostly pleasant for our whole crew.