The Crawford Trail Network is located within the Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park. The park is situated on a height of land overlooking Kelowna, which lies northwest of the trail network. A morass of well-signed trails rise from low foothills along the city limits, up to the Kettle Valley Railway / Trans-Canada Trail at 1230 meters elevation. Downhill bike riders often drive up the June Springs Rd. and shuttle Crawford, but most like to earn their vertical, choosing to meander their way up to the KVR via single or dual-track routes.

There are a variety of ways to access Crawford, but the recommended route is to enter at the purpose-made parking area located at the end of Stewart Road East, on the outskirts of Kelowna. Ample parking and washroom facilities exist onsite. Click on the image above to expand it. For those of you who would rather view the topographical version of this same trail network, click here. I recommend studying (pan / tilt / zoom / rotate) the downloadable Google Earth track available on this website in order to really familiarize yourself with the area.

The largest trail riding network in the Central Okanagan, Crawford offers a wide variety of trails ranging from easy, through intermediate and advanced. Its terrain features dual-track roads, quad-tracks, cross-country singletrack and ‘all-mountain’ style technical downhill trails like Vapour Trial, Heckle and Rocky Screech. Due to the vast number of trails in this network, individual trail descriptions would be quite complex.

For those new to the area, I recommend an easy introduction to Crawford, ascending the main dual-track trails to reach the KVR. Mix and match Upper Bench, Pink Highway, Lost Lake Trail and Bellevue Access. Once at the KVR, “the sky’s the limit” on optional downhill routes, keeping in mind that most of the downhill routes are intermediate to advanced difficulty. As with the Three Blind Mice trails described elsewhere in this trail-guide, use of an iPhone in conjunction with the Google Earth tracks on SweetSingletrack.ca, or a classic GPS hand-held device to discern your position is extremely helpful.

The park was damaged by the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Fire, but is well into recovery, with new growth on nearly every meter of available soil. Some portions of the forest were unaffected by the fire and others completely stripped of timber. In exploring the terrain you will experience the multiple stages of forest recovery. In some areas, standing-dead trees still fall across the trails. As such, please don’t venture into the park on windy days.

The Friends of The South Slopes (F.O.S.S.) have produce a detailed, GPS-based trail-map of the park. It's available at over a dozen locations in the Central Okanagan, and I strongly encourage you to purchase a copy in order to support the work of this non-profit, volunteer group.

Major trials are signed and F.O.S.S. has cleared safe-zones on the two major routes up into the park, Pink Highway and Lost Lake Trail. Park users can make their way to these spots in case they are caught in Crawford during a sudden wind-storm.

For more information, visit the F.O.S.S website at www.foss-kelowna.org

L:524m | H:1230m | Length: Varies | Water: Not Potable | Cell Access: Most