Klootchman Park

Access via Howe Sound Ln.

I did this route on a particularly hot day, so when I reached the shady entrance way to Klootchman Park, so was more than ready to get inside and start exploring.

Klootchman Park is only a 5 minute walk from the incredibly popular Lighthouse Park, and it is also a forested trail park. Because of that, I expected it to be just a smaller version of the same sort of park. But just from a quick look at the ground, I could tell that Klootchman is of far superior quality to Lighthouse.

These roots form a natural staircase along the trail, and they actually still resemble roots. This park is obviously not nearly as overused as Lighthouse. So don't go telling your whole school about this one, but it's definitely worth a visit with a few friends.

Overall, this park is in great shape. It's got what looks like a brand new set of wooden stairs.

This staircase is set against one of the park's vertical rock faces, so it stands out quite a bit. However, in a few years, it'll blend right in. The wood will darken, but the sturdy structure will most likely not be affected at all by then. I bet that after just one winter, these stairs will look like they're meant to be there, just like the rest of the park's infrastructure.

For example, there's these stairs that look almost like naturally placed rocks:

In other news, take a look at that rock face. Now that's cool!

Another feature of Klootchman Park is its excellent huckleberries. Some of the bushes are exceedingly difficult to reach. There's some legit rock climbing required for the best of them, but every berry I saw in the entire park was huge, sweet and juicy.

The biggest problem with the trail through Klootchman Park is that there are very few options about which way to go. All the way down to the water, there is only one path (there's a few small ones as well, but they only lead to backyards). The trail splits off at the end and leads to several different viewpoints, but it would be nice to have a few ways to vary the route there.

That annoyed me the whole way to the cliffs, but once I was at the cliffs... I was standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean and all my troubles floated away.

The cliffs are almost perfectly vertical and plunge several stories down before meeting the ocean. They wrap around the edge of the land and provide almost 180 degrees worth of view. I may have found my new sanctuary for when I need to go somewhere and unwind. My favorite one is this shaded cliff all the way at the far end with a view of East Island.

Not only would it be a great spot to watch a regatta from (by the way, sailboats race here every Wednesday night), but the land is also very nice there. A few of the best huckleberry bushes I mentioned earlier are a simple treacherous climb away, and there's this gorgeous arbutus tree hanging from the rocks just above.

I thought about cliff jumping while I was in Klootchman Park. There didn't appear to be any hazards below, but then I realized that there wouldn't be any way to get back to shore. You could crawl on to East Island, but once you were on that rock, you'd have to hope that a boat willing to pick up hitchhikers would come past soon. Klootchman Park is missing a beach.

The most frustrating thing about this park is that there's such a clear view of the water, but you can't swim in it because there's no safe way in and out. This is the closest thing Klootchman Park has:

It's another pretty spot, but the rock is jagged and the waves could easily smash you against it. Besides, it's a longer swim from the cliffs than I'd be up for.

There's probably better weather to visit Klootchman Park in than sweltering heat. In fact, I'd probably really enjoy this park in the dead of winter. I will probably return to its cliffs to sort out my school season angst some time in November.

PPR
Good: trail in good shape, beautiful landscape, huckleberries, cliffs, peaceful (way fewer tourists than Lighthouse Park)
Bad: lack of trail variety, nowhere to swim, steep hike back out of the park
8/10