Mud Bay Park

Mud Bay Park is the kind of shoreline you arrive at wanting to conquer and leave humbled by. A flat, salt-scented loop unfurls along Boundary Bay with mudflats, eelgrass beds and low vantage points that reward patience with raptors, shorebirds and the occasional seal. Locals come for the ritual: an after-work 5.2 km walk, a weekend bike spin along the dyke, or a quiet dawn with binoculars. Tourists who detour out this way find dramatic sunsets that turn the bay into a photographer’s open studio. The park wears its utility plainly — gravel trails, sparse benches, one tidy toilet and a parking lot that fills on sunny days — and that practicality is its charm. Expect highway noise near the access, midges and mosquitoes at dusk, and firm reminders to stick to the paths to protect an Important Bird Area. In a city of lawns and developments, Mud Bay Park is a brackish, slightly wild refuge where community, wildlife and the sea meet on equal terms.