Urban Oases of Victoria - Lake Ida Anne Park
It seemed like forever since I have written an ‘Urban Oasis’ article, and looking back it has been a year and a half since the one I put out on Library Square. The idea behind these articles is to share little places that are tucked away; where you can take a little escape from the city. Today’s oasis really fits the bill and it is out in Langford, which is not an area of the city that I get to explore that much. While my partner went into Costco (which I try really hard to never to go into) my son and I went and tried to find a little place to explore nearby. The Millstream Village area has to be one of my least favourite places on the South Island, as it is loud, busy and not really a great place to go for a walk. So looking at Google Maps, my eyes fell upon a tiny little body of water just 350m from Millstream Road, Lake Ida Anne Park.
As I said, it is less than one track length from Millstream Road along Treanor Avenue to Lake Ida Anne Park, so easily walkable. We entered the little park off of Ashley Place and there are a couple of parking spots as you arrive. I didn’t see any bike racks at this entrance. There was, however, a sign I thought was interesting, apparently this tiny lake is stocked with trout each year. When my son and I walked along the shore it seemed pretty thick with duck weed so I am not sure that it would be the best fishing experience at this time of year, but it is pretty cool that the option exists. There are even fishing classes offered here by the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
This is not a big park. At only about 2 and a half acres, there is only so much to see, despite that there is a lot crammed into that space. From Ashley Place you follow a path along the north side of the lake. You will see one of the two aerating fountains quite soon after you start your walk. There is a beautiful picnic spot about a third of the way along the path. Once you pass that you will see that there is a small island in the middle and a second aerating fountain. The path then forks with one to the north connecting up to Jamie Place, while the second crosses the first of two small bridges and goes around the top of the lake till you get back to Treanor Avenue. When we walked out to this point, it is clear this is the main entrance to the park as there is a large park sign indicating its existence and quite a few more parking spots. We walked back thought the park and I remember thinking that this is definitely a place to remember to stop to have a picnic if out this way with the whole family. The picnic table is large and far enough away from all of the roads to make it a really tranquil experience. It is actually hard to imagine that less than half a kilometre from here is the chaos and noise of Millstream Road.
Back at Ashley Place, I had noted that there was another pathway leading to the northeast and we decided to follow it along. It turned out to be quite a wide walking path that ended back down at Millstream Road. As I did my minor digging online, I saw that there is a loop trail that includes Ida Anne. You can see the whole route here. I will keep that in mind for the next time I am out this way, as I really have not done enough exploring in the area. The Millstream Creek Park looks particularly lovely. If you have done the whole loop before, or there is something I missed here, please let me know in the comments. Also if anyone knows who Ida Anne was / is, I would love to know, I couldn’t find anything online about the naming that tied back to Victoria or this park.
