Bowen Park is located right in the middle of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island. This is a beautiful park with plenty of trails along the Millstone River that runs through the park. These are interpretive trails, the park’s 36 acres are mostly undeveloped and a real jewel for the city of Nanaimo. You can walk to a very pretty waterfall that includes a fish ladder where you can observe the salmon as they move up the river. There are an amazing duck pond and a wonderful rhododendron grove where you can see more than 350 different species.
The park has lots of sports facilities that include an outdoor swimming pool, sports fields, outdoor lacrosse box, tennis courts, sand volleyball courts, a curling club, disc golf, horseshoe pits, two children’s playgrounds, lawn bowling green, two covered picnic shelters and a wonderful outdoor amphitheatre that is pretty awesome for getting married at.
The land where the park sits was once owned by the Western Fuel Company, they were a company that was out of San Francisco. In 1918, they donated the land to the city of Nanaimo under the condition that it remains a public park, the official title was transferred in 1931.
The park is a very nice place to take a walk, but it’s best viewed in the fall, there are many big maples here and when the leaves are scattered like a giant orange mat, it’s beautiful. During the winter months and snowfalls, there are many hills that are used to toboggan with great glee, and then again the spring is something to see, the rhododendrons in the grove are all abloom and quite impressive.