The road in Giant’s Head Mountain Park in Summerland is now closed to vehicle traffic.
The road closure took effect on July 27 to protect public safety and to limit the risk of person-caused fires.
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Fire chief Glenn Noble said the fire danger rating in Summerland is now at 4 or high. The highest fire danger rating is 5, and parts of the region are already at that level.
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The park road has been closed in past years as well, in an effort to reduce the risk of a person-caused fire.
Last year, the narrow, winding road in the park was closed to vehicle traffic in early July because of extremely dry conditions. The summer of 2017 was one of the worst wildfire seasons in British Columbia’s history, with more than 1.2 million hectares of land burned during the season.
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In 2015, the road was closed for much of the summer, again as a result of dry conditions.
In 2014, the road closure also resulted in the cancellation of a longboarding competition on the mountain.
Before 2014, the last time the park had been closed to vehicle traffic was in 2003, during another devastating wildfire season.
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