Black Mountain - Sntsk'il'nten Regional Park in Kelowna, BC

Sunday March 31, 2024 -- Time for another hike, as the day promised to be beautiful. 

This time I traveled to another part of the city of Kelowna called Black Mountain, where I had never done any actual hiking before. Apparently there is a fairly new 640-hectare regional park there called "Black Mountain - sntsk'il'ntən Regional Park", a "vast park on the eastern slopes of Kelowna, offering trails through endangered grasslands" (Description taken from the RDCO Website).

I followed a hiking suggestion from the Internet that first took me into the hillside high above the park and out of the park boundary, providing some nice views of Kelowna from the east, and then I returned to walk through some of the official trails created in the grasslands area between 2014 and 2021. The indigenous name "sntsk'il'nten" (pronounced sins – te – KEEL – ten) means "The place where flint is found". The hill used to be a fire lookout, and also a ski hill in years where there is a lot of snow.

Because I was much further from Okanagan Lake, I didn't see the lake so well, but I still had views over the entire city from the east side. I also enjoyed the trails, saw chipmunks, an American Kestrel and a Golden Eagle (or maybe it was a young bald eagle?), and fortunately did not run into any bears....

Here is the parking lot at the entrance of the Black Mountain Park. The more popular trails are mostly in the grasslands area, but I walked a different suggested trail into the higher hills at the back, but not to the summit of Black Mountain. 

This cute little bird was perched on a cable at the parking lot. It is an American Kestrel, the smallest and most common falcon in North America

Information at the parking lot shows the various trails in the park and reminds dog owners that dogs are allowed if they are on leash

At the gate to the park is this large sign, not possible to miss. DOGS MUST BE ON LEASH. (This is one of my pet peeves, dog owners not obeying park rules). 

And of the 15 parties with dogs that passed me on the trail, only four had their dogs on leash. Here are a few that won't follow the rules, because "it's not fun".

All through the park are signs which point you in the direction of the trails you might like to walk. At some point in the day I followed parts of both of these trails. (Ephemeral Pond Trail and Coyote Trail). 

I got the idea for my hike from the website called AllTrails, and set off (at 11:30) to follow this trail. I remained on the south side of this trail, but took a different route through the grasslands further north when I was making my way back. 

This is the full loop I ended up doing. It was just over 11 kilometers, and I was on the trail for four hours, which included a couple of breaks. 

Heading up the mountain, a look back past the grasslands and the newer development near Black Mountain Golf Course, to Okanagan Lake and Mount Boucherie on the other side. 

Another view westward to the city of Kelowna past the vast grasslands of the Black Mountain Regional Park. (It was a good day to hike here, but in summer it would be too hot without any shade from the trees) 

I was pretty sure that the bird on the left is an eagle. As it did not have a white head, I thought it might be a golden eagle(?) But apparently young bald eagles do not yet have white heads. It was much larger than the bird on the right, which is a hawk of some kind.

There was one single bench along the 11-km loop I did, so I stopped here for a break (as we often do in Switzerland) and ate a snack lunch. From here you can see across the entire vast city of Kelowna. 

A zoomed look at Knox Mountain in the center where I had done a 10-km hike about a week earlier (those photos are HERE). 

The bench was a good place to set up my camera for a couple of self-timed photos!

Continuing now along the wide "ATV" trail, following the route suggested on the Internet (I discovered later that I was actually walking in an area that was currently closed "for Conservation", but I did not know this and there were no signs along the way blocking the trail). 

Leaving the park boundary for a stretch. From here I had another short uphill section to a lovely upper plateau of sorts. 

From here I entered a darker forested section where there was still some remnants of snow. I also wondered if I would run into a black bear. I was alone on this trail except for one other person who passed me here on his way down. 

The level trail passed through a small section labeled "Private Property", but the gates were unlocked on both sides, and I figured as long as hikery stayed repectfully on the road, the owners don't mind. 

Another look across the city from higher up now, where you can see a larger part of Okanagan Lake. 

I didn't quite understand how this stretch of "private property" works, as there was a secondary trail leading up the mountain from this lovely spot.

It was very pretty here on this higher level spot. 

Leaving the private property now, this gate was also unlocked. 

As I was making my way down the return section of the trail, I did a detour heading to a lake which I saw on the map (could not get there because there was a locked gate to private property before reaching the lake), and ended up on the Grassland Trail in the Park. 

I am now back on one of the official trail called the "Grassland Trail" heading back down into the main part of the park.

Some early flowers in these grasslands. These are called yellow bells (Fritillaria pudica)   

These flowers are called Sagebrush Buttercups

I wasn't ready to head back to the car park yet, so I detoured on another trail called the Hoodoo Trail. Those bluffs were fascinating, so I wanted to pass by them, and the small path is what I prefer when hiking anyway. 

Trying out some more self-timed photos. 

Passing the bluffs

Continuing along the Hoodoo Trail. This was a really nice section, as it continued along the narrow trail across the little depression. 

The Hoodoo Trail joined the Coyote Trail, so I followed that back to the car park. 

This is the kind of trail I prefer to walk. We have so many such options in Switzerland. (Although it's usually much greener there!)

Final stretch. You can now see over the city again. 

A few more pretty flowers. These are called "Spring Beauty" 

It's only as I got near to where I had started my hike that I saw this map with the cross-hatched area showing that a part of this park was actually closed. I couldn't recognize the details though, and only found out later on the Regional District Website that the part of the park I had walked through was "Closed"

This is the Park Map from the RDCO (Regional District of Central Okanagan) website. I started on the red trail "Sntsk'il'nten Trail" (and part of the blue trail) and continued uphill past the start of the Flume Trail, and as far up as to where the trail heads to the right/south. (From this map, that would have been in the "closed" section of the park, but there were no signs). From there I headed north (to the left) through the private property, then joined the Grassland Trail at the junction with the "Ridge Trail", continuing north. After descending the Grassland Trail I followed the Hoodoo trail, then headed back to the car park along the "Coyote Trail".