Naramata Creek Park in the Summer

Back in April I took my children for a walk along the Naramata Creek Park trail. I shared our adventure in this blog post. Now, four months later, we returned to this trail once again with out-of-town friends.

Naramata Creek Park is a good place to visit in the summer. The trail winds through a well sheltered gully following Naramata Creek. The towering rock slabs, trees and trickling creek help keep the gully cool, even on the most sweltering of Okanagan days. The hike to the waterfall is about 2.4km, round-trip, and takes about an hour for us to complete. The first part of the trail has several well maintained bridges, a bench and picnic table. The trail is a combination of packed bark mulch and dirt with rocks and roots jutting out. The trail is not stroller friendly, especially the second half. The first part of the trail is maintained by the RDOS but at a point along the trail the park become part of the Nature Trust. After this point there are no more fancy bridges and the trail becomes more challenging.

I was surprised by how much I failed to take note of our first time through. There are some very interesting rocks along this trail and when the water is low, as it is in the summer, children can explore around the creek bed. We found a cave, of sorts, along the side of the gully and a magical pool where my youngest believes mermaids live. Since our last visit there have also been several upgrade made to the trail, especially the two creek crossings, making the hike a little easier for my younger two. We have yet to hike above the waterfall, but once I have an extra set of adult hands to help me out we will give it a try.

The direction for finding Naramata Creek Park is on my previous post, but I will repeat them here. Naramata Creek Park is located north of Penticton on the east side of Okanagan Lake. To get there drive north towards Naramata and just before swerving left into the small town of Naramata look for a narrow, easy to overlook, road on the right side. There is park signage at the end of the road, as seen in the picture above. The entrance to the park is very easy to miss unless you know what to look for. For more directions click here.