Mount Dilworth

March 19, 2019

639m

Kelowna, BC

Mt. Dilworth, commonly known as “Dilworth Mountain” by the locals, is a lowly wooded hill within the city limit of Kelowna. This summit offers next-to-nothing hiking, scrambling or mountaineering interest and in fact, most of the “mountain” had been turned into urban areas. To reach the summit is a mere drive from downtown Kelowna followed by a 15-min stroll. A private communication tower road goes up the northeastern flanks but there’re several other (slightly more interesting) trails. On the first day of this past spring break vacation I found myself having several hours to kill after finishing a long plod up Okanagan Mountain. My plan was to eat and rest but after playing with the maps I couldn’t resist the temptation to go up again.. I figured it would make the perfect sense to wait for sunset on the summit of Mt. Dilworth for the sake reason of why-not.. Peak-baggers are stubborn, huh!

Mt. Dilworth driving and hiking route. GPX DL

I followed the Waze GPS app driving up the windy “Summit Drive” and then turned onto “Selkirk Drive” and parked at the only possible pull-out on the northwest corner of the “summit area”. The Gaia GPS map showed a trail from this side and I sure found one. The hike took me 15 minutes and other than the icy condition there’s nothing worth noting. I waited until the sun went down. Despite the lowly status this summit does offer some neat views.

The trail starts just to the right of this house…

This is the start of the trail. Note the icy conditions

Looking back from the start of the trail.

The south aspect of this trail was free of snow/ice

Summit Panorama from Mt. Dilworth. Click to view large size.

A look into East Kelowna and Black Knight Mountain

The houses on Dilworth Mtn. are among the most expensive in Kelowna

Me on the summit of Mt. Dilworth

Another photo of me on the summit of Mt. Dilworth

This is looking over Mt. Knox towards Blue Grouse Mountain

The summit lookout area.. Quite a pleasant place to linger around

Another panorama from the summit of Mt. DIlworth, near sunset time. Click to view large size.

A zoomed-in shot towards Okanagan Mountain

Mt. Boucherie in the foreground

A closer look at Black Knight Mountain

Sunset on the horizon.

I drove down back into the town of Kelowna and killed several hours in a nearby McDonald where I could find free wifi and electricity plug-in. These days most, if not all of my navigation either on road or in the backcountry is heavily depended on the iPhone so I really had to make sure it’s fully charged. At about 9 pm I drove back up Mt. Dilworth hoping to find somewhere dark and quiet to crash in my vehicle. I found one – Lillooet Park but soon a police officer came and kicked me out. Apparently all parks in Kelowna are closed for the night so I had no choice but crashing in my vehicle in the McDonalds’ parking lot. A homeless came and checked my window two times during the night but despite that I did get some reasonably decent hours of sleep. And then there came the next day.