For my first walk in the project I picked a local park mostly for the facilities it had other than trails. It was a hot and sunny day, and the only way I could think of to get my kids to take part in a walk was to promise some time on the playground and in the spray park afterwards.

Hawthorne Rotary Park really has two distinct areas, the developed section with a garden, picnic area, spray park and playground and the much quieter trails. I hadn't considered that it was a sunny weekend afternoon and when we arrived at the main parking lot around four o’clock it was still full. Many people were taking advantage of the picnic areas and the large field where I saw volleyball, badminton soccer and football all being played.

The picnic shelters have safe areas for portable barbeques as well as electrical outlets for cooking. The bathrooms are also in this area but are only open on a seasonal basis. The rhododendron garden is rather bland this time of year, with little in the way of other flowers, but it is near the facilities that would be great for a picnic with a little more privacy and quiet.

The trails at Hawthorne Rotary Park are approximately 2.6 km long and took us about 45 minutes to stroll through. Some are paved, while most are gravel and wind through the second growth forest, making for an easy and pleasant shady walk on a hot day. The trails are smooth enough for strollers to use. A few features of note along the trails include the pond and creek, complete with ducks swimming in them, and several stumps from when the area was originally logged around a hundred years ago. A strange sight is the northern parking lot off of 142A Street, which is locked and appears to have not been in use for some time. The paint has faded, the asphalt has cracked in several places and weeds are starting to take hold, trying to reclaim the area.

Despite the trees and quiet trails you never truly escape the feel of being in the city in this park. Several of the trails come out in residential neighbourhoods, and the birdsong and sounds of small creatures in the undergrowth were joined by the sounds of airplanes overhead, church bells and an ice-cream truck. Yet it still has a feeling of being an escape from both the heat of the unsheltered areas and the crowds. We only saw three other people on the trails while we were walking.

I would assume that at other times of the day, week and year the park in general would be a much quieter place.