One our final home stretch of our road trip, our search for a nice park with playgrounds brought us to the city of Abbotsford. Mill Lake Park was highly rated for its diverse activities for the kids and it certainly did not disappoint.

The loop around Mill Lake spans about 2 km with several different facilities spread across the park. The well paved gravel road is stroller friendly and also has marked cycling lane at certain sections. We followed the loop trail here.

To make things interesting, there is a stretch of boardwalk within this loop. You will be passing the lake with a closer view of the ducks and the lilies. However, we did notice a weird plastic smell when crossing the boardwalk. Seems like the boardwalk is not made from actual wood but from plastic instead, which can give off scent when exposed to sunlight over a period of time.

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There is also a small section that you can choose to detour into a small wooded area, or continue on the gravel road. By crossing the fence, you will be entering a small canopy covered path which eventually connects back to the main loop.

The whole loop has decent amount of shades, that makes it quite comfortable to walk in on a hot summer day. Junior had lots of fun riding his bicycle here.

Activities

There are so many different activities you can do here. First of all, there are 3 big playgrounds within the park! Yup that’s right! Three full sized playgrounds with a big water park attached to one of them. And all of them are within short walking distance in the loop. It’s totally a kid’s dream come true!

The first playground we arrived at is named “Rotary Crossing” , where it seems suitable for little kids to play in. My two year old had so much fun going up the small rock climbing wall.

Beside the playground, there are two ping pong tables and an area with different types of gym equipment intended for adults or teens 13 years and older. Each equipment has instructions on how to use it and which muscle groups you will be working on. It reminded us of the outdoor gym equipment in Burnaby’s Central Park.

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The second playground is bigger than the first one, and seems quite interesting too, with swings, several climbing structures, and two slides to play on. Since junior zoomed right through this area with his bike, we didn’t have a chance to stop and play here.

The third playground is probably the largest of all and totally amazed us. Again a full sized playground with swings and slides with a big (and beautiful) spray park feature. The spray park structures looks quite new and clean as well.

Other than the playgrounds, there is also an outdoor swimming pool, the “ Centenial Outdoor Pool”, as well as lawn bowling, horseshoe throwing, and tennis courts. We didn’t visit the outdoor pool this time cause it looks closed.

The lake itself was fairly small and mediocre. A few people did bring floating toys but it’s too small for Daddy to get excited about paddleboarding here. The permanent “poor water quality” sign didn’t help increase his appetite either.

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Picnic is also a very popular activity to do here. There are several picnic tables and chairs in the park. Some picnic tables are even covered as well.

Washroom

There are several washrooms along the loop. The bigger washrooms are near the major playgrounds.

Breastfeeding

There are many benches throughout the trail, most benches are faced towards the lake, giving you a good view during feeding.

Traffic

There is moderate traffic on the trail. There are also a few cyclists

Parking

There are several small parking lots around the lake, but they can get somewhat busy. We didn’t have trouble finding a spot on a late Saturday afternoon though.

This is such an amazing park that we would definitely love to come back. Junior had so much fun riding his bike here. He almost completed the loop trail!

• Facilities: Abundant
• Traffic: moderate
• View: mediocre lake view
• Overall Score: 7/10

Continue reading about our 2020 Rockies Road Trip!