Elk Island Snowshoe La Tayr-Geo Discovery Tour

Welcome to Elk Island National Park! It is one of Canada’s smallest national parks and part of the Beaver Hills Biosphere, a UNESCO designed biosphere since 2016 and one of nineteen in Canada.

Your winter geo-adventure begins at the Moss Lake Trailhead, where the last glaciation deposited an abundance of rolling terrain.As you snowshoe within this winter wonderland, you will traverse a mixed boreal forest and frozen wetland vegetation that offers fantastic opportunities for wildlife viewing – Look out for beavers, deer, elk, plains bison, squirrels, and woodpeckers. To continue in a good way, we will also give a tobacco offering along the journey to give thanks to Mother Earth. Your geo-experience concludes with an Indigenous sharing circle around a homefire, where you can warm up and enjoy some traditional tea.

Join Keith Diakiw, a proud Métis guide and professional geologist, as he shares some glacial geology knowledge of the region, the park’s unique history from 1906-1913, traditional Indigenous medicine knowledge of plants hiding in plain sight, and experience some wildlife encounters.

NOTE: The Moss Lake trailhead is accessible from the Elk Island Parkway road, and free parking is available.

Length: ~5 km

Time: 2.5–3 hours; weekends (1300 to 1600 hrs)

Significant Features: Mixed boreal forest. Great wildlife viewing of squirrels, beaver, deer, elk, plains bison, and woodpeckers.

Trailhead Location: Access from Elk Island Parkway, inside Elk Island National Park (Free parking at Moss Lake Trail parking lot)