Spruce Woods and the Spirit Sands

Manitoba Provincial Park On The Assiniboine River Protecting The Spirit Sands, A Relict Dune Field From A Glacial Lake Agassiz Delta, And Habitat For The Northern Prairie Skink · Carberry, Manitoba

Twelve thousand years ago the Assiniboine River emptied into glacial Lake Agassiz here and dropped an enormous delta of sand, and for a long time a great deal of it lay open and moving. What is left is the Spirit Sands: a few square kilometres of bare dune up to thirty metres high, sitting in the middle of Manitoba parkland like something that wandered in from another continent. People call it Canada's desert, which is wrong - the rainfall here is far too high for that, and the accurate and more interesting fact is the opposite one, that the open sand is steadily shrinking as grass and spruce take it back. A short walk away, spring-fed water collects in a collapsed hollow called the Devil's Punch Bowl and turns a startling blue-green. The sandy soil is also the only place in Manitoba you will find a lizard.

Spruce Woods Provincial Park, near Carberry, Assiniboine River, Carberry, Manitoba, Canada

The park is open year round with trails walkable in the warmer months and skiable in winter; A MANITOBA PARKS VEHICLE PERMIT IS REQUIRED to enter. The visitor centre, canteen, campground and interpretive programmes are SEASONAL, running roughly late May to early September. HORSE-DRAWN WAGON RIDES to the dunes are run by a separate operator and have not run in every season - confirm before counting on them. THERE IS NO SHADE AND NO WATER ON THE DUNE TRAILS, so go early or late in summer and carry your own. The Spirit Sands loop is about 4km return; with the Devil's Punch Bowl it is roughly 8-10km.

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