Winter Wonderland at Pike Lake

Almost a year ago we went to visit Pike Lake in the winter to see what they have. It was a lot of fun and I knew I’d be making another winter trip. We went last weekend and found a true winter wonderland at Pike Lake. It was amazing. We planned part of our visit and then had time to do a bit more exploring. We booked a Sunday Guided Snowshoe Hike at Pike Lake Provincial Park.

Learning about snowshoes.

We met with our Park Interpreter, Gracie, at 10:30 for our tour. Pike Lake has the option to use your own snowshoes or to borrow them. My son had a pair his size we borrowed from a friend and I borrowed a pair from the park. My sister met us with her own snowshoes. There was a mix of experienced and not-so-experienced in the group as well as a great mix of ages.

My sweet boy loved trying out the snowshoes but he also enjoyed falling into the snow and taking his time so we decided to stay at the back of the group. We spent most of our time catching up to the others. My son really enjoyed the snowshoes but he was ready to take many breaks.

Learning about animal footprints.

Every once in a while, we would stop and talk about our surroundings, nature, and snowshoeing. We missed some of it because it took us a while to catch up but it felt nice to get back to the group. After talking, Gracie made sure to answer questions and listen to comments from the crowd. Most of the comments were from the little people in the crowd.

The Snowshoe Crew

Our first snowshoe trip was a success. It was the perfect length. My son was ready to get the snowshoes off. I thought it was a lot of fun. When we first started, my legs immediately felt tired but it didn’t take long to adapt and love the experience. We’ll be finding many more places to snowshoe before the season ends.

Storywalk

Our next stop was a walk down the Gift of Green Nature Trail. We got to do two things at once. We went on a Storywalk. The story was called When The Trees Crackle With Cold. It was a lovely story and the perfect walk for us. My son loves being read to and had fun walking to all the pages. The other thing we were able to do on the Nature Trail was to feed the birds. Bird Seed is provided before you go into the trails and it’s the perfect time to have a bird come and eat out of your hand.

A walk on the Lake.

Our next stop was the ice. We didn’t bring our skates this time but wanted to do a quick tour on the ice. Next time, we’ll bring skates.

Playground Games

We also made time for a very quick playground visit. It was warm the day we went so it was a very wet stop. We had a lot of fun but we were ready to head back to the car pretty quickly. (Just I was ready, my son was having a blast and I was tired.)

Snow “Mountains”

We were even able to play on our way to the car. My son decided he had to climb and conquer the biggest of mountains at Pike Lake. We had so much fun and were happy we had a mellow weekend weather-wise to play. We have plans to visit again because I think there is still so much to do. We would do another guided snowshoe walk as well.