Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Spruce Woods

Spruce Woods is an awesome area, a wooded oasis in the prairie.  Driving through the area, you might think you've gotten turned around, and are heading back into the shield! 

As a kid, Spruce Woods was a place to swim and to play, chasing frogs and climbing all over the playground, pretending we were on a real ship!  We always had picnics there, way fun! 

Our last trip to the area was in (wait for it) May of 2005. 



Sorry for the dark bits floating around on the sky - not sure if that was moisture in my camera, or light artifacts on the film.



Spruce Woods is unique, a forest built on sand dunes.  In the first photo, you can see how the hills look brownish?  That's desert-type vegetation!  Here are two photos of the kind of flowers that grow here.  Both of these were taken in October of 2004.


Afraid I don't know what either one is!




Here are some better photos of the sand hills, back to May of 2005.


I think both of these were taken near the Epinette trailhead, but not sure!


There are sandhills in the southwest, near Grande-Clairie (the Lauder Sandhills) and just outside of Brandon (the Kemnay Sandhills).  Both are attractive and great for birding, but neither is anywhere near as dramatic as Spruce Woods!



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