On a cold and windy February day I decided to do a shorter hike.    A route I sometimes hike in winter starts at the Red Hill trailhead, and in most years I hike a longer loop around two of the larger ponds and a series of hills.    On this day the biting wind discouraged a longer hike, so the route was a simple loop around Red Hill.    The trailhead is a pull-out area off Lac du Bois Road.   Red Hill has reddish soil and red cliffs on the east side, and before the grasslands area was made into a Provincial Park, the hill was scarred with many reddish dirt bike (motorcycle) tracks.    With new fences in place and Parks signage, the hill has been mostly restored to the grassy sagebrush slope it once was.    From the gate a single track trail winds down to a pond on the back side of Red Hill.

At the north end of the pond, there is a faint single track that goes around the pond, and continues up to low pass, then down again to the upper pond.    The longer loop goes past the pond and around the south side of two hills.   On this day, the route was shorter, just around Red Hill.

The trail goes past Red Hill, just above the shoreline of the frozen pond to the south end.

A single track then winds up the hill back toward the road.    There are open views of the grasslands hills from various points along the route.

The grasslands pond is a beautiful spot in the spring, hidden from the road.   In winter, it is a quiet and remote spot, perfect for a short hike.