About Harper Park
Harper Park is Coquitlam, BC’s newest park, just completed at the end of 2020. It’s an urban nature park, with trails through the second-growth forest on Burke Mountain, close to Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. Smiling Creek and West Smiling Creek flow through the park, connecting to the Hyde Creek Watershed.
Current Google Maps show the initial park boundaries—about 16.2 acres—but the park was expanded by an additional 10.8 acres in 2019 to include Smiling Creek, a Smiling Creek tributary, and a Glacial erratic (large boulder), for a total park size of approximately 27 acres or 11 hectares. The park boundary now extends to the east along Harper Road, and includes an access point on the southeastern corner of the park, next to Smiling Creek, on Highland at Hall Avenue. (A future townhouse site exists along Hall Avenue.)
Harper Park Trails
The trails aren’t officially named, but we’ve named them for ourselves (so we can plan our trail clean-up routes):
- Fern Trail – the westernmost trail (running from the Argyle Street park entrance to Harper Road).
- Black Bear Trail – running east-west, alongside Danielson to the south, with bridges across West Smiling Creek and Smiling Creek; joins Smiling Creek Trail to the east.
- Dollar Trail – near Upper Harper Road at the north end and joining #2 in the south, with a bridge crossing tributary 3 of Smiling Creek. Burke Mountain was known as Dollar Mountain, as the Dollar Logging Company logged the area in the 1920s.
- Smiling Creek Trail – Running north-south, between the Highland Drive park entrance and Flywheel Trail.
- Rock Trail – branching Eastward from the Highland park entrance, the westernmost trail, alongside the Smiling Creek tributary. Named for the impressive glacial erratic alongside the trail.
- Flywheel Trail – following the rail tracks along the North East end of the park, connecting Smiling Creek and #5 trails. Named after the original railway bed that marks the end of the trail, at Smiling Creek. There are picnic tables, interpretive signs, logging artifacts, benches, a garbage bin, stairs, and a compass-themed plaza along the northeast edge of the park.
About Park Sparks
Park Sparks is a volunteer program in Coquitlam, BC, that helps connects people to parks in the community. There are projects and events, like plantings and litter clean-ups, as well as ongoing park care and stewardship activities, like the Adopt-A-Park program. Thomas (and the rest of the Whittle family) adopted the trails in Harper Park on April 1, 2021.
Park-Related Links
Press Release: January 6, 2021 Improved Nature Park on Burke Mountain Already Popular