Kelowna Parks Challenge – Trip #34
As the local lockdown continues to thaw and the local weather continues to improve, I have decided to get back on track with my Kelowna Parks Challenge. I paused for quarantine on April 10th and resumed my explorations of discovery on June 10th, which pushes my deadline back to September 22. I have some big weeks coming up, but I’m confident I’ll get this challenge done before the deadline.
This week, I started back in by resuming an adventure I was on just before my pause: discovering the beaches of the North Mission. Starting at the end of Bluebird Road, on the left bank of the mouth of Mission Creek, I travelled south to the north end of Hobson Road, visiting an excellent total of seven lakefront parks.
Read on for my impressions and reflections!
The Trip
This week’s adventure had a nice mix of narrow beach access parks, full-size beach parks and others, all of them roughly to the west of Mission Recreation Park. As I wrote in my post on my walk there, the northern border of the Mission is nowadays considered to be Mission Creek, but its heart is still the area around Bellevue Creek; therefore, anything north of Bellevue Creek, and especially north of the Okanagan Mission Community Hall at Lakeshore and DeHart, could be considered North Mission.
The neighbourhood I travelled through this week appears to have been a predominantly suburban residential one, sitting as it does between two historic town centres. The lakeshore has been lined with houses for a few decades now, broken only by the occasional beach access park. In recent years, however, the City of Kelowna has been making an effort to increase public access to the waterfront in this area, and two of the parks I explored this week have recently been expanded as part of that project.
Bluebird Road North Beach Access
This beach access park, unremarkable, perhaps, at first glance, is the closest public park and beach to the mouth of Mission Creek. Since I love to access creeks, I might also point out that, when the lake level is low, one can also cavort at will on the sedimentary sands deposited in front of that mouth, but they are on crown land and are not technically a Kelowna park.
Despite its alley-like appearance, this park has been (recently?) granted a picnic table, several saplings, and a small rockery, planted with grapevines. I look forward to seeing the blossoming of these efforts at beautification.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Because this park is primarily a beach, dogs are not allowed.
Bluebird Beach Park
This is the first of two recently-expanded parks on this week’s adventure. For many years, this park was a typical, narrow beach access park, as seen up and down the lakeshore, but in 2015 the City of Kelowna purchased the two residential lots to the south. In 2017, the expanded park’s new name was chosen and in 2019 the old houses were cleared away.
The park is now three acres and is mostly grassy field. On the south side, it retains a precious patch of native vegetation, and on the west side, it features a wide and beautiful beach. The city has plans to add further features to this park, such as a washroom and paths.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Because this park has a beach and no formal paths, dogs are not allowed.
Belmont Park
The only park explored this week that is not directly connected to the waterfront, this park preserves a wonderful pond and is located along the Belmont Trail, which runs between Gordon and Lakeshore Roads. The Lakeshore trailhead is across the street from the southeast corner of Bluebird Beach Park, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a crosswalk at that location in any future designs for that waterfront park.
In addition to Belmont Pond, a birding hotspot, this park features an arboretum along the eastern half of the trail. Despite its proximity and seemingly similar age, it does not appear related to the arboretum in Mission Recreation Park. Its discovery was a delight to me, since I hadn’t found it labelled on any city maps.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: On-leash dogs are allowed on the paths in this park.
Lakeshore Road Beach Access
I found this still-narrow beach access park strangely charming. Strange because I have trouble putting my finger on its special qualities. It has a garbage can, but no picnic table, no playground, and no bench. Could it be that I liked it simply because it has at least one large tree and a patch of grass?
Like the other beach access parks in Kelowna, this park gives the public the ability to swim in the same waters as and enjoy the same view as the residents of the multi-million dollar homes that line the lake. The beach here provides a lovely view of the extent of the shallow bight it is located on, which runs from the mouth of Mission Creek south to Sarsons Beach Park.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Because this park is primarily a beach, dogs are not allowed.
Thomson Creek Park
This park has two parts and preserves the short-but-significant Thomson Creek. That creek drains the southern half of the Thomson Marsh which surrounds the Mission Recreation Park, while the northern half drains into Michaelbrook and Mission Creek. Additionally, the lower half of Thomson Creek is used as an outflow for almost the entire storm sewer system of the North Mission.
Neither the eastern half of this park, across Gordon Road from Thomson Marsh, nor the western half, which runs from Lakeshore Road to Okanagan Lake has signage, official paths, or any other designed park feature; nevertheless, they are clearly marked as a public park on the City’s website. There is a rough, unofficial trail along the left bank of the creek in the western half.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: On-leash dogs are allowed in this park.
Hobson Beach Park
This is the second recently-expanded park on this week’s adventure. Up until last year, this park consisted of a narrow trail that ran along the fenceline of the adjacent Central Okanagan Sailing Association, with only a small triangle of beach at the end; however, in 2018, the City of Kelowna purchased the residential lot to the north, and sometime over the last year removed the old house and added a beautiful new sign.
Because this park is effectively so new, it has only had superficial touches added so far. A couple of picnic tables, in particular, have been placed in the middle of the lot. Perhaps the best thing about this park, from a beach-going perspective, is that the former residents’ dock was left intact and can now be used by visitors.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Because this park has a beach and no formal paths, dogs are not allowed.
Central Okanagan Sailing Association
Though this property is a designated city park, it is more properly the home of a non-profit organization, the Central Okanagan Sailing Association. Here, you can take lessons on sailing or rent small boats and other watercraft, such as kayaks and stand up paddleboards.
Because the facility is open to members and students only, and because of the valuable watercraft stored in the yard, the property is fenced off and not generally open to the wandering public.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: I did not enter the COSA building to verify, but it probably has washrooms and drinking water. The building is only open to members, students and others on COSA business.
Dog Rules: Because this park is primarily a fenced private facility, dogs are not allowed.
Reflections
This week was an odd one, split as it was over two months. I explored the Bluebird parks, Belmont Park and Lakeshore Beach Access in the beginning of April, took two months off for COVID-19 quarantine, then explored the rest of the parks in early June. It provided me with a great opportunity to observe the change in the landscape over that period. In particular I was fascinated by the dramatic change in water level in both Mission Creek and Okanagan Lake.
Most of Kelowna is built on an alluvial plain, and it is in the landscape’s nature to flood every year. Despite the measures humans have taken to constrain the creeks, they can do nothing to stop the annual freshet or the need to contend with it. One of the ways they do that is with the dam built at the southern end of the lake, in Penticton.
Early every year, the dam is opened to let out more water and draw down the level of the lake, in expectation of the annual flood. This year, because the winter snowpack was unusually large, the lake was drawn down a little farther than usual. Even so, the subsequent flood brought the lake level a little higher than its managers would like. Since this is my first spring in Kelowna, I was grateful for the way nature arranged for me to have such a clear demonstration of this phenomenon.
Conclusion
It feels good to be back on track with my challenge. I have some exciting walks coming up in the next couple of months, and I hope you will continue to follow my adventures. Right now, everything is green and sunny, so I know every park will be at its best.
Including the seven parks I explored this week, I have now seen one hundred fifty-two of the two hundred three parks on my official list in two hundred sixty-four days, or 75% of the parks in 72% of the days. I feel good about my ability to get this challenge done on time.
