Check out my previous hikes here. #1291844

I was very busy last Sunday, so I skipped writing last week's hiking post. However, we are back at it this week, and we are heading to Minnekhada Regional Park. Minnekhada Regional Park is a provincial park located near Coquitlam BC. It contains two marsh-lakes separated by a land bridge, and also a decent sized forest with trails leading to some lookouts at higher elevations. The two best viewpoints high up are Low Knoll and High Knoll. It is approximately 10km to traverse through all the trails in the park, but some points can be skipped to shorten the hike. The park is supposed to be teeming with wildlife because of the marsh, but we visited the park back in February, 2021 in late winter, so we did not see much wildlife. Coming from the parking lot, the trail starts on flat ground, and quickly leads to the land bridge that separates the Upper Marsh and the Lower Marsh. After crossing the land bridge, we enter the forest and start gaining elevation. We eventually reach the Low Knoll viewpoint to observe the view. Although there were quite a few trees obstructing the view at Low Knoll, we were still able to see the marsh and forest below us. We decided to skip hiking to High Knoll, because it was very cold and was also snowing quite heavily. We made our way back down from High Knoll through the forest. Continuing on trail, we eventually made our way around the southern shore of Lower Marsh, where the trail loops back to the trailhead.

Trail starts off on flat land.

We can see the marsh soon after we started hiking.

Upper Marsh. Partly frozen due to the winter cold.

Land bridge separating the two marshes.

Lower Marsh. Even more frozen than Upper Marsh.

We started to head into the forest and started to gain elevation.

It started to snow.

More elevation gain.

Little one wants to hike on his own and did not want to get into the carrier.

Admiring the tall dead tree.

Mushroom and moss still alive in the bitter cold.

Nearing the Low Knoll viewpoint. Warning sign cautioning hikers to be careful of the cliff.

View at Low Knoll.

I think I was pointing to the trailhead and told my kids we started from there.

Southern side of Lower Marsh. This trail loops back to the trailhead.

We were throwing rocks onto the ice to try to see if we can break the ice. Judging from the number of rocks already on the ice, it seems we were not the only ones with that idea.