There are indeed Spruce Woods in this lovely provincial park, as well as river bottom forest along the Assiniboine River, mixed-grass prairie, and upland deciduous forest. But despite its name, Spruce Woods is best known as the home of the Spirit Sands. Named for its religious significance to local aboriginal people, these expansive and largely unvegetated dune fields are absent in the rest of Manitoba and rare throughout Canada.

The dunes formed at the end of the last ice age. Today the Assiniboine River is a meandering waterway narrow enough to throw a rock across, but 12,000 years ago it was a mile-wide rush of glacial melt-water pouring into ancient glacial Lake Agassiz.

The eastern three-quarters of the park is somewhat inaccessible backcountry, but the western swath along Highway 5 can easily be explored via a few gravel roads, several established hiking trails and the Assiniboine River canoe route.