Length: 9.4 km
Elevation: 122 m
Time: 3 hours, 9 minutes
Map of the Devil's Punch Bowl
Roslyn and I were out at a cabin for the weekend with some friends and we decided it would be a good opportunity to get up early and complete the Devil's Punch Bowl trail. The trail starts out quite pleasantly as it weaves through rolling hills dotted with pine trees. the trail is about 40% sand sections, which were a bit harder to walk on, but the trail is overall fairly easy.
Walking through rolling hills...
... and up sandy ones
About a quarter of the way into the trail it turns into a bit of a forest walk with a lush green canopy and undergrowth. Roslyn also found a few flowers to take pictures of.
View of the sun rise through the smoke haze
First set of flowers Roslyn found
Purple set of flowers, quite pretty
At almost the halfway point, the trail splits. One direction goes to the shelter, outhouse, and halfway stop and the other goes to a look out, access to the river, and a boardwalk across a pond. You can get to the Devil's Punch Bowl by going either way, but if stairs are a problem for you I recommend going to the halfway area and avoiding them.
View from the river look out. The river is pretty low
Walking on a pond
The boardwalk across the pond
Once across the pond, its only another 100 m or so down to the water level of the Punch Bowl. The first 80 m is on a boardwalk, but after that it's all walking up and down hill on sand.
Flowers at the Punch Bowl
View from the Devil's Punch Bowl lookout
After seeing the Punch Bowl, Roslyn and I stopped at the halfway mark for a quick bite to eat and some water. The rest area is pleasant, with a sheltered picnic area and an outhouse. After our break we headed out along the return loop and had a bit of rain fall on us. Not nearly enough to dampen our fun though!
About a third of the way back we came across our first sand dune up close. We could see them further away earlier on the trail, but seeing one crawling across the trail trhough the forest was pretty amazing.
Sand dunes creeping through the forest
A little ways after out first encounter, we came upon a trail that led up to the top of the dune. Not wanting to say we passed up an opportunity for adventure, we climbed to the top of it. The front of the dune was pretty steep, but the sand made it easy to get a good grip on it, even if it did fill our boots up.
View from the top of the dune
One of the dozens of daisies on the dunes
After getting down from the dune and emptying our boots, the last few kilometers back was an easy jaunt and happily rain free.
In Roslyn's words:
This was a bit of a special weekend hike for us as it was our 1 year wedding anniversary and so us and our friends (also their 2 year wedding anniversary) rented a cabin near Spruce Woods provincial park for the weekend. They were not interested in a big early morning hike so it was just me and Connor which was a nice little touch. We woke up early trying to beat the sunrise and did get on trail before the sun actually came up. Sadly, the haze in the air from the summer wildfires made for not a super pictures sunrise, but Im glad we went early nonetheless. It was really quite beautiful in Spruce Woods, and it is so interesting that we have these sand dunes here in manitoba and how different the area is from the Whiteshell. It just goes to show how diverse this province is and how much there is to explore. We are now looking forward to going back and hiking the spirit sands trails.
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