Park declared unsafe, closed until next year
Unsafe bridges to nowhere dot a regional park that will be closed for the rest of the year and possibly well into 2018.
Public access to Hardy Falls, a popular park in south Peachland, will not be possible until sometime next year because of damage caused by high water levels in Deep Creek.
The park is a narrow, shady canyon where locals and tourists can cool off on a hot summer’s day, taking a 15-minute walk to reach a waterfall. It’s also a favourite place for nature lovers to watch kokanee spawn in September.
“It just isn’t safe for people to be in this area of the park,” Central Okanagan regional district spokesman Bruce Smith said Tuesday.
Several of the eight pedestrian bridges that cross Deep Creek have been eroded, with their structural integrity compromised, by recent flooding.
“A couple of them are ‘bridge islands,’ with the trail on either end eroded,” Smith said. “In addition, there’s quite some erosion damage from the spring flooding to the main creekside trail itself, leading to the falls viewpoint.”
Repair work on the bridges and trail won’t even start until the provincial government approves the necessary funds, Smith said. A report outlining the damage and requesting the financial aid will have to be prepared by regional district staff.
Five years ago, the park was closed for six weeks in the summer as all eight bridges were replaced at a cost of $137,000. They replaced bridges that had been constructed in 1996.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources required that the bridge work in 2012 be conducted during the summer, when the environmental impact on Deep Creek and the spawning grounds was considered to be lowest.
If the ministry makes the same determination again for the optimal timing of the necessary bridge work, Hardy Falls park could be closed not only for the rest of this year, but until the middle of 2018.
“We’ll have to see how things work out for the recovery plan, funding and when we can get the work started,” Smith said. “Right now, we’re just saying that it will be closed for this year.”