Naramata Creek Park

The Naramata Creek Park hiking trail follows Naramata Creek through a gulley that leads to a more canyon-like area covered in beautiful waterfalls. The hike is about 2.4 km, round trip, and takes about an hour or so with children (longer if they want to splash in the water).

The first part of the trail is maintained by the Regional District. There’s an outhouse at the trailhead and then several well maintained bridges, a bench and picnic table along the first section of the trail. The trail is packed dirt with some rocks and roots jutting out. It’s possible to push an off-road stroller along the first part of the trail, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The trail continues on along, paralleling the creek, but at one point along the trail the park become part of the Nature Trust. After this point there are no more nice bridges, so if you want to continue hiking to see the waterfalls you must cross the creek twice over rocks and logs.

The first creek crossing and the second creek crossing are close together. They can be very challenging and dangerous in the spring when the water is high. Our favourite time to visit is in the summer and fall when the water is low.

There are several trails that break off the main trail, some small ones to the right (down to the creek) and one more official looking trail one that forks left up the hill. Ignore all these trail (especially the left forking trail) and stick to the main trail along creek and eventually you will see the lower waterfall. In the late summer and fall you can hike up the waterfall – it’s beautiful! The steep trail up the waterfall eventually connects with the KVR trail. If you go left on this trail it will intersects with Smethurst Road.

Directions:

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. Here is a link to more directions.

More about this hike: Naramata Creek Park in the Summer.

Check out: My Top 10 Kid Friendly Hikes in the South Okanagan.