The area north of Lac du Bois Grasslands Provincial Park is the Lac du Bois Grasslands Conservation Area, now owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.   Hikers can hike old tracks through the upper grasslands and mixed forests on the south side of McQueen Lake.    An old double track which was once a wagon/cart track for homesteads is now a grassland route that can be hiked to forested hills, pastures, small lakes, marshes, and the special upper grasslands ecosystem.  there are no trail signs but there were some bits of flagging tape on a combination of single tracks and faint double tracks to Clay Lake.

The old homestead on Clay Lake was built and occupied by Joe Reid starting in 1912.    Clay Lake is a shallow alkaline lake and years of drought are shrinking the lake.   The homestead has two standing outbuildings next to the old wagon track heading south.   A fork in the track allows hikers to go up through the forest to the edge of the upper grasslands.    In the homesteaders time, the open grassland slopes were once part of a 10 000; acre lease, but homesteaders found life too hard when there was a run of dry years, so the leases reverted to Crown lands.   The open grasslands can be hiked, though visible trails are few.   In spring the open slopes are covered in balsamroot and other wildflowers.

For this day the hike was a route that I have been doing for years.    There was no one around except for a few birds along the route.  Some photos taken along the way are shared here as a slideshow, or they can be seen with captions in a Google Photos album – Clay Lake Hike: