Irwin Park is in the Goldstream neighborhood of Langford, B.C. As part of a former campground, this park has wide trails and recovering clearings as well as a couple of ponds, formed with a couple of dams along Parkdale Creek. A gate house, originally from the campground, lies near the western entrance to the park. The building was restored, notably with fish motifs in the cedar shingles, by students and teachers from the Westshore Center for Learning and Training. Parkdale Creek is part of the Colwood Creek watershed which flows into Esquimalt Lagoon via Glen Lake and Colwood Lake. Humpback Reservoir with a thirty one meter high concrete dam, built and filled in nineteen fifteen, are also part of the original waterway. (This reservoir was filled using the pipeline from Sooke Lake until nineteen seventy and is protected from public usage by the CRD water supply area storage lake.) The creek formed a gully which now has an ephemeral water flow due to the small ponds. These ponds are not for swimming as they are part of a reservoir system with has pump stations and were built, in nineteen seventy one, for the obsolete Humpback Valley Campground. Of the original forty six hectare campground with one hundred and twenty two sites, Irwin Park is about five and half hectares in size. The trail in Irwin Park connects to the West Shore Parkway, near the rugby, football and high school sport fields, over a distance of about a kilometer. The trail varies from concrete slabs to dirt to gravel to asphalt with various degrees of moss growth on the terrain. There is pedestrian bridge across the lower dam while the bridge over the upper dam is closed. Several benches were once strategically placed along the walk way and now provide views of the cedar and Douglas fir trees as well as the ponds. A couple of picnic tables are found near the eastern bridge in a small clearing. This park is frequented by dog walkers, hikers and walkers. It is along the proposed route, for cyclists, as part of the connector trail from the Galloping Goose Trail to the Humpback Connector of the Trans Canada Trail. Mount Wells Park, Goldstream Regional, Harlequin, Cressida and Langford Lake parks are nearby. This is a beautiful place to explore in your backyard.
Geographic location N48° 26’38” W123°32’41”
Irwin Park can be reached from the Trans Canada Highway also called Hwy1. Turn at the West Shore Parkway and make a right onto Amy Road to pass the gas station. Continue along Amy Road which merges with Sooke Lake Road. Turn left onto Humpback Road and continue along to turn left onto Irwin Road. The trailhead is just past the junction with Creekside Terrace which leads to the Raven Estate neighborhood and Lakewood Place. Another access point into the park is from the end of Lakewood Place between homes 2986 and 2987. There is limited roadside parking both areas. The third access point is Parkland Park and across the Parkdale Creek Bridge to reach the trail that parallels the creek into the park. This forested area has been significantly altered due to clear cutting and land clear for roadways and houses.
Walks in Your Backyard 