Darke Lake Park is a BC Parks site northwest of Summerland, reached from Highway 97 by about 16 kilometres of gravel road along Fish Lake Road through Meadow Valley. BC Parks describes it as an off-the-beaten-track retreat surrounded by fir and pine-clad hills.
Local people call it Fish Lake because of its rainbow and eastern brook trout.
Darke Lake is a quiet fishing-focused Okanagan park with year-round appeal. The lake is stocked by the Summerland Trout Hatchery with rainbow trout and brook trout, and it is popular with local residents for ice fishing because it is small enough to freeze but does not freeze solid.
Warm-weather visitors can plan around fishing, hiking in a remote setting, roadway cycling, horseback riding, and hunting during open season. Winter visitors may find ice fishing, ice skating when the lake freezes, skiing on old logging roads depending on snow levels, and snowmobiling opportunities on park roads, though lack of snow can be an issue.
The park was established June 29, 1943 and includes an historical fish camp and an old trapper's cabin near the lake. Conservation values include pine and fir forests, white-tailed deer, and birds such as barn owl, flammulated owl, and northern goshawk.
Plan around stocked trout fishing, winter ice fishing, hiking, road-based cycling, horseback riding without a permit, seasonal hunting, ice skating when frozen, old-road skiing, snowmobiling on roads, and quiet lake photography.
Bring drinking water because potable water is not available, and note that large RV units are not recommended. Keep pets leashed, check fishing and hunting rules, and prepare for gravel-road access from Summerland.
