Kalamoir Regional Park on the West Side, Kelowna, BC

Wednesday April 3, 2024 --  Another beautiful day here in the Okanagan Valley as I met up with an old friend from many years back, to walk along Okanagan Lake's West side, in the beautiful 30.7-hectare Kalamoir Park.

This is a loop trail of 4-5 kilometers, and the paths were the kinds I love the most, narrow dirt paths. There is a parking lot near the south side of the park, and one side of the loop follows the lakeshore (which we did heading north) and the other side is much higher up above the lake, and we did that trail heading south. The views we had over this part of the lake were stunning.

We were on the trail for about two hours. The best part, even better than the views, were the flowers! As if overnight, bunches and bunches of the "Arrowleaf Balsamroot" (Balsamorhiza Sagittata) flowers simply exploded, covering the mountainside in yellow. This flower is the official flower of the city of Kelowna, and as far as we all remember, it rarely comes out this early in the year. And this time we actually saw a bald eagle fly by overhead!

The start of the lakeside trail heading north from the parking lot. 

We were very surprised that the lovely yellow flowers so common to this area have so suddenly emerged!

All over the mountainside were bunches of these flowers! They are known as Arrowleaf Balsamroot. 

From here there are also a couple of spots with beaches and lake access. Our trail heads off slightly away from the lake now. 

The whole hillside covered in flowers. 

Map of the park and details of the various named trails here. 

We first followed the 1.5-km Sunnyside Trail (blue), then returned to walk up the steep Mike Passmore Trail (orange), and from there via a connecting trail, ended up on the Upper Rim Trail (purple) to the very south end of the park, and returned to the parking lot via the yellow Sunnyside Trail. In effect, we walked on all four of the "official" trails!

A lovely bridge at the north end of the Lakeside Trail 

Heading uphill now on the Mike Passmore Trail and heading south now. 

This view directly eastward is to the Mission Area of Kelowna, and also toward the Little White Mountain (ski area to the east). 

The whole upper trail to the south end of the park was like this. 

On the far side of the lake is the city of Kelowna and the three major "mountains" which define the city. I did a 9-km walk on Knox Mountain on March 18, and a 11-km hike at Black Mountain on March 31. Several years ago I walked to the summit of Dilworth Mountain (no photos to link). 

Some nice bluffs here 

A bench! If it was lunch time, we could have had a picnic lunch here!

Now more to the south but on the east side of Okanagan Lake is the park called "Okanagan Mountain Park" where fires raged in 2003, burning more than 250 sq.kilometers of forest and destroying the historical Kettle Valley Railway trestle bridges (exactly 20 years before last year's even more destructive fires on this side of the lake).

On the connecting trail to the Upper Rim trail was this large tree that had been snapped off and lay across the path. We had no problems doing a detour around it.

The trail contiues to wind around the upper part of the hillside 

Another view to Kelowna on the east side of the lake. Below is the road through the park which ends at the parking lot. 

The best experience of the afternoon was the sighting of a bald eagle flying by! I was lucky to have captured it like this, as it flew toward us so quickly!

3-D Satellite image of the Kalamoir Park with the various trails We did the entire loop: Blue heading north, orange and purple heading south, then yellow heading back to the parking lot. (The photo is from the Regional District of Central Okanagan Website, Kalamoir Park)

On March 18 when I did the hike on Knox Mountain, these signs were everywhere, "advertising" Kelowna's Official Flower, the "Arrowleaf Balsamroot, which was not flowering there at the time.