Kelowna Parks Challenge – Trip #40
This week, as part of my Kelowna Parks Challenge, I explored another great regional park, the Johns Family Nature Conservancy. A wildlife preserve that features the famous Kelowna Crags, this park was big enough that I made it the whole focus this week.
Read on for my impressions and reflections.
The Park
The Johns Family Nature Conservancy Regional Park is located halfway up Kelowna’s South Slopes. It sits between Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park on the west and Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park on the east. It is surrounded by crown land at the moment, but it is hoped that connections can be made between the parks in the future. That would make for a wonderful hiking experience all across the mid-slopes.
Up until 2011, this park was much smaller. Originally called Cedar Mountain, the park was augmented significantly by the addition of the Johns Family lands that lay to the west and south. The current park is now six times as big as it used to be. In particular, the entirety of the Crags is now within the park, meaning climbers are no longer trespassing as they used to do.
Alf Johns’ will, which provided for the donation of the family’s lands, specified that the territory be preserved for the benefit of wildlife. For this reason, most of the park is off-limits to the visiting public. Only the northern third of the park, where the Crags are located, has any official trails in it. Also, it is extra important for visitors to leash their dogs in this park, both to stop them from chasing the animals and to stop them from entering the sensitive wetlands.
Okanagan Mountain Wildfire
In 2003, all of the area that is now in the park was cleared by the Okanagan Mountain wildfire. This fire was one of the worst on record, partially because the forest there hadn’t been allowed to burn for around seventy years. Seventeen years later, I was able to see signs of recovery everywhere. The shrubs in the park have grown large and young pine trees and douglas firs can bee seen throughout the park.
The Trip
Because I have committed to travelling every major official trail in each park in order to count it done as part of my challenge, I made sure to choose a route through Johns Family Nature Conservancy that allowed me to do that. I skipped the Lebanon Creek Greenway, since I had deliberately left greenways off the challenge’s official list.
Elk Trail
Starting at the parking lot, on the eastern edge of the park, I headed west on Elk Trail, the main trail through the park. This trail obviously used to be a roadway and is maintained with a fine gravel surface. About a quarter of the way along, Elk Trail passes the only toilet in the park. Up to this point, the trail is regularly driven by parks vehicles and is wide and clear.
The first third of the trail, as it parallels the face of the Crags, is relatively level, but in the western half of the park it has significant slope. In general, the park spans the territory between Lebanon Creek on the east and Bertram Creek on the west, and the western half of Elk Trail slopes down into the Bertram Valley and then back up out again.
In this half of the park, the trail is not as regularly maintained. During my visit, much of the descent to Bertram Creek was carpeted by beautiful yellow flowers. I also didn’t encounter any people in the western half of the park, though I did pass a few between the parking lot and the bathroom, as well as near the Crags on the way back.
At the western end of the trail, the gravel ends abruptly at the edge of the park, awaiting future development to carry it onward to Okanagan Mountain.
Crags Trail
After hiking back down into Bertram Valley and out again, I took the Crags Trail along the base of the peak. This well-used dirt trail gives access to the twelve or so climbing areas on the peak’s south face. At the eastern end of the peak, the Crags Trail connects with the Lebanon Creek Greenway, and I turned south to head back to the parking lot.
Johns Family Nature Conservancy Regional Park
This park is chiefly a wildlife preserve and, as such, is mostly designed around hiking. There is a permanent toilet installed in the park but no other installed features, such as a picnic area or playground.
The Crags rock climbing destination is located in this park and is easily accessed from the official park trails.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is a washroom in this park. It is about a kilometre down the Elk trail from the parking lot, where the Cedar Trail heads north to the Crags.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park. They must be on-leash and stay on the trails.
Reflections
This park provided me with an excellent hike. Just like last week, when I hiked the Paul’s Tomb Trail in Knox Mountain Park as well as the Lochview Trail to the north, I reached my hiking limit for the day, and did not have the energy left to see more parks. At seven kilometres of trail, that probably says more about my general fitness than I would like to admit.
Johns Family Nature Conservancy made for a full day, however. I thoroughly enjoyed my adventure there. In particular, I loved the views to the north, across the Mission all the way to Knox Mountain, Dilworth Mountain, and the Glenmore Valley. The views are mostly unobstructed by trees these days, thanks to the wildfire, but that won’t always be the case.
The forest is regenerating nicely all across the South Slopes and that was fun to observe as well. I saw many full and lovely bushes, such as ocean spray, as well as plenty of berries, like oregon grape and thimbleberry. The shrub growth was especially good along the creeks, which was great to see. I heard they lost a lot of overhanging cover in the fire, which was hard on their precious wetland ecosystems.
The local wildlife appears to be enjoying the regrowth as well. I saw a greater variety of animals in this park than I have seen in any other, including deer, chipmunks, ground squirrels, hawks, ravens, many songbirds, butterflies, and grasshoppers. That is great, since preserving their habitat is the goal of the park.
Conclusions
With the addition of this week’s park, I have now seen one hundred seventy-three of the two hundred and three parks on the Kelowna Parks Challenge Official List in three hundred and nine days, or 85% of the parks in 85% of the days. In other words, I have exhausted my lead and now have to step it up in order to get ahead. If I don’t see at least four parks next week, I will likely fall behind. Even though I have things planned out, it still makes me nervous.
I’m getting down to the wire now. Will I make it? Will I achieve my goal and conquer my challenge? Subscribe to my mailing list and stay tuned!
