Kelowna Parks Challenge – Trip #37
This week, as part of my Kelowna Parks Challenge, I returned to the community of McKinley Landing to see the remaining five parks there. There was more variety in this week’s collection, with only three of the five being beach access parks this time.
Read on for my impressions and reflections!
The Trip
The first three parks this week were located in the suburb of McKinley Landing proper, where I spent the entirety of my adventure last week. This week’s beach access parks on Dubbin Road were very similar to those I explored last week on Dewdney Road, exhibiting a similar ratio of developed and undeveloped properties.
Developed more as a remote subdivision than an independent village, McKinley Landing does not have any commercial zoning. As far as I can tell, there is no corner store there for the residents’ grandchildren to walk to on a lazy summer afternoon. The closest thing it has to a physical community centre is the long property that contains McKinley Landing Park and the local fire hall.
The other two parks this week lie just to the north of the old subdivision and preserve some of the natural beauty of the area. McKinley Road Beach Access, unlike its smaller brethren in the subdivision, is a long park that preserves the deep ravine which separates McKinley Landing from the new neighbourhood of McKinley Beach. Meanwhile, McKinley Mountain Park preserves the hill to the north of that, along with some excellent views up and down Okanagan Lake.
McKinley Landing Park
This beautiful park has all of the basic features of a neighbourhood park laid out in a pleasing scale and arrangement. With its playground and picnic table located at the north end, much room is left over for a large lawn.
Along its eastern border with Bennett Road, this park is lined with tall trees that provide abundant shade throughout the first half of the day. With that and the lack of direct car access to the lawn level, this park feels like a safe and protected place to play.
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 playground and no trails, dogs are not allowed in this park.
Dubbin Road South Beach Access
Like three of the beach access parks I explored last week along Dewdney Road, this park has not been developed. In this park’s case, however, that lack is not immediately obvious, because there is a park sign along Dubbin Road, suggesting some access might have once been developed here.
Encouraged by this sign, I made my way down the access road below it to explore more of the property; however, I could not find a trailhead between the two adjoining residences. If there were a trail here, it would most likely be a long staircase, because this property is very steep.
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 in this park.
Dubbin Road North Beach Access
In contrast to the previous park, this property has been developed. With a similar sign to that found at Dubbin Road South and Dewdney Road #4, my guess is that all three were developed at the same time as the rest of the subdivision.
This park reminded me of Dewdney Road Beach Access #4, taking the visitor on a similar journey down a path of gravel and grass, past a picnic area, to approach the beach among some shrubs. This park is both wider and less steep than that park, however, and I think makes for a better experience.
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 in this park.
McKinley Road Beach Access
This park, like several other McKinley Landing beach access parks, is not developed; however, this park is not like any other beach access park in this or other neighbourhoods I have visited. Instead of occupying a regular-sized subdivision lot, this park protects the entire ravine that separates McKinley Landing from McKinley Beach. In that way, it is more like the conservation corridors that are set aside in more modern subdivisions, like Wilden and the Ponds.
Like those Open Spaces, this park does not appear to have any official development or features. I could find no official trails or publicly-accessible utility roads in this park. The city map shows a washroom, but it appears to be on private land and I couldn’t figure out how to get to it.
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 in this park.
McKinley Mountain Park
This park preserves the summit and some of the sides of McKinley Mountain and features a lovely hiking trail all the way to the top. Located to the north of McKinley Road, the hill is a similar height to Knox Mountain and Dilworth Mountain, though the climb to the top is shorter than on those hills, since the starting point is at a higher elevation.
Because McKinley Mountain is not part of a ridge, the summit provides excellent views to the north and south. There are several viewpoints at or near the top, with welcome benches. The mountain is still covered with native vegetation, and I particularly enjoyed the abundance of birds there.
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 only on a leash and on the trail, so they don’t disturb the wildlife.
Reflections
This week’s adventure brought more variety than last week’s trip to the same area and greater reward. I love the variation in beach access parks and the views from the McKinley Landing subdivision are beautiful, but nothing last week compared to this week’s joy of climbing McKinley Mountain. Amazingly, though I explored it on a Sunday morning in the summer, I had the entire park to myself, except for the ubiquitous birds. This made it considerably preferable to the always-busy Knox Mountain, even though the climb was about half the distance and took half the time of Knox’s Apex Trail. That exclusivity was especially attractive considering the current pandemic.
Moreover, my trip up the mountain whetted my appetite for hikes in the weeks to come. With McKinley Landing finished, I have very few neighbourhood parks left to discover. Most of my remaining adventures will incorporate a hill climb of some kind. In the coming weeks, I will climb Knox Mountain, Dilworth Mountain, and Mine Hill, to name a few. After my refreshing hike up McKinley Mountain, I am looking forward to them more than ever.
Conclusions
With the addition of this week’s five parks, I have now explored one hundred sixty-seven of the two hundred and three parks on my Official List in two hundred eighty-nine days, or 82% of the parks in 79% of the year. I hadn’t originally planned to split McKinley Landing in two, so I am now wondering how many of my remaining planned adventures will need to be further divided. That could complicate things, but I still believe I have enough buffer time built in to my schedule to accommodate the odd division.
Thanks for reading my travelogue for this week and I hope you learned something about Kelowna’s public parks. Let me know if you have any questions or comments about my trip or this week’s parks!
