Kelowna Parks Challenge – Trip #46
This week, as part of the Kelowna Parks Challenge, I finally climbed the Apex Trail to the top of Knox Mountain! I also kept going to the north and explored the western part of the Magic Estates subdivision that sits on top of the mountain. It was a great adventure.
Read on for my impressions and reflections.
The Trip
Knox Mountain
Knox Mountain Park is one of the largest parks in Kelowna, and also one of the best developed. Extremely popular, its location near downtown means it draws both residents and tourists. With trails to walk and features to explore in all of its disparate sections, it took me several trips to see all of it.
I first skirted the bottom of the park way back in Trip #3. I checked out the disc golf course and dog beach on my way to the Poplar Point Beach Access. Then, last fall, I made two trips through more recently added areas of the park. I traveled through the eastern part of the park, on my first trip to Magic Estates, and later climbed through the Highpointe neighbourhood to visit Kathleen Lake. Finally, just a month or so ago, I explored the western edge of the park as I traveled the Paul’s Tomb Trail to Paul’s Tomb.
In the end, there was no section of the park left for me to explore other than the most famous. The Apex Trail is perhaps the most well-known hike in Kelowna. Starting from the main parking lot, at the base of the mountain, it travels three hundred metres up to the Apex Lookout on the mountain’s peak. I noticed that most people did not hike beyond the lower lookout, which is twenty minutes from the trailhead and already gives a great view of the city and the lake. Even so, there were still more people hiking the upper parts of the trail than I saw on Dilworth, McKinley, or Mine Hill.
Knox Mountain Drive and COVID
This is an interesting summer to hike to the peak of Knox. Most years, the road to the summit is open to cars, and when you reach the top, there are plenty of other people there already. Indeed, the pavilion and other features at the top were developed in the 1960s with car-borne vistors in mind.
This year, however, due to the covid pandemic, the road up the mountain has been closed to cars, so, though I still saw plenty of hikers and bikers, I could feel a lot more of the welcome isolation I feel climbing other local hills.
Magic Estates
The Magic Estates subdivision was built on top of Knox Mountain in the 1990s. As I mentioned before, I first visited it last year when I reached it from the east. The more I learned about it, however, the more I realized the larger part of the subdivision lay on the west side of Clifton Road, and I had only seen its edge.
This time I came into the neighbourhood from the west, where it provides several access points to Knox Mountain Park, and visited its two neighbourhood parks. In truth, only one is a neighbourhood park, and the other is a piece of parkland being used as a cul-de-sac. Nevertheless, visiting them gave me a much better idea of the character of the area.
Knox Mountain Park
This is the largest and most well-known park in Kelowna. It’s lower sections include a disc golf course, a tennis court, and an off-leash dog park. Its upper sections include many popular hiking and mountain biking trails.
At the peak of the mountain is the Pioneer Pavilion, washrooms and a caretaker’s residence, all built with funds from the S.M.Simpson Trust. A paved road leads to the top, but is closed, this year, to cars.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is a drinking fountain in this park, beside the washrooms at the top of the park. There are four washrooms in this park. There are portable washrooms at the main parking lot, at the Lower Lookout, and along the Paul’s Tomb Trail, about a kilometre before Paul’s Tomb. There is a permanent washroom building with running water at the top of the park, by the Pioneer Pavilion.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park, but they must be on-leash and they must stay on trails. There is an off-leash dog park near the southern edge of the park.
Avonlea Park
This charming neighbourhood park sits in a depression that likely used to feature a native wetland. From street level, at the top of the retaining walls that support a curve in the road, a wooden walkway divides the park in two.
Each side of the park features grass and a playground for local children. Furthermore, a large section of the same lot has been left undeveloped and is contiguous with Knox Mountain Park to the west.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park, but they must be on-leash and they must stay on trails. They are not allowed near the playgrounds.
Merlin Court Greenspace
This piece of parkland has not been developed as a recreational space, per se. Doubtlessly set aside to provide a pedestrian corridor between Merlin Court and Clifton Road, most of this land is now paved and the rest is gravel.
In addition to the walkway from Merlin Court, much of this park operates as a cul-de-sac off of Clifton Road. The widest part of the park provides room for cars to turn around as well as the site for some local electrical infrastructure.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Dogs are not allowed in this park.
Reflections
This adventure was long anticipated and did not disappoint (except maybe the Merlin Court Greenspace). Knox Mountain is so well-known and regarded that it carried a different weight than other parks I waited until the end of the challenge to visit.
At a similar height to other local hills, it took a similar amount of time and energy to climb it, but it felt different, more special perhaps, while doing so. I think it is because the many decades of loving attention to the park are palpable when you visit.
This is most obvious, of course, in the features developed at the top of the mountain. There is no Pioneer Pavilion at the top of Dilworth Mountain, and no washroom, with or without running water, at the top of McKinley Mountain. I imagine S.M.Simpson’s love for Knox Mountain reflected the love many residents had for it. He just had the means to do something about it.
Magic Estates
Magic Estates was fascinating to visit once again. As a suburb of the 1990s, it so obviously represents a transitional phase from the densely-planned designs of the 60s through the 80s to the hillside suburbs still being built all around the city. It doesn’t have a lot of conservation corridors per se, but its streets are generally laid out with respect to the curves of the mountain top.
Avonlea Park provides an interesting case study. It appears to have been built on the site of a former mountaintop wetland, a precious and rare ecosystem. In Wilden, we have seen that ponds and wetlands are set aside as conservation areas and undeveloped parks in their own right. Nevertheless, the designers of Avonlea Park have responded to the challenge of the site with a charming solution that must have seemed cutting-edge in the 1990s.
Conclusions
This was my second last adventure for the Kelowna Parks Challenge. With a deadline of September 22, I am rapidly approaching the end. After this week, I have only three parks to explore, but one is very large. I should be able to get them all done on time, but it’s not done yet.
With the three parks I saw this week, I have now seen two hundred parks out of the two hundred three on the Official List in three hundred fifty-six days, or 99% of the parks in 98% of the days. I’m not ahead by much, but I believe I am ahead by enough.
Next week I plan to see the remaining parks and finish this challenge successfully. Wish me luck!
