ciao!travels
Spirit Sands
Photography: (Inset) Courtesy Travel Manitoba, Kristhine Guerrero, HikeBikeTravel.com
roam,
sweet roam
All wanderers are welcome on the
treasure trove of trails crisscrossing
Manitoba’s prairie landscape
By Jared Clinton
West
GORGE CREEK TRAIL
Riding Mountain National Park
11.6km ••
1
There are more than
400 kilometres of trails
waiting to be traversed in Riding
Mountain National Park, but
none is as beloved as Gorge Creek
Trail. Beginning seven kilometres
inside the East Gate, the ascending trail
Gorge Creek Trail
guides hikers through thickly forested areas and up so-called “goat
paths” along the Manitoba Escarpment, which was scoured out of
bedrock by glaciers millennia ago. The grind of the rising elevation
leads to a spectacular payoff. Moving towards the trail’s zenith, eyes
will invariably be drawn to the horizon and a seemingly limitless
sightline across the prairie landscape.
SPIRIT SANDS &
DEVIL’S PUNCH BOWL
Spruce Woods Prov. Park
10km
••
2 Nearly two hours west
of Winnipeg, on Trans-
Canada Highway and tucked
south along Highway 5, rests
one of the most singular
outdoor experiences
Manitoba has to offer.
Though masquerading
as a parkland hike, a
journey to the Spirit
Sands presents adventurers
with towering sand
dunes reminiscent of
desert terrain. Formed
by glacial meltwaters more
than 15,000 years ago, the
Saharan landscape is a delta of
the Assiniboine River. Another
wonder is found at the nearby
Devil’s Punchbowl, a blue-green
lake formed after underground
streams collapsed and eroded
hills in the surrounding area.
Difficulty: • easy, •• moderate, ••• hard Route: loop, out&back, point2point
Bike Trail:
Pets OK:
ciao! / summer / two thousand twenty 23