Home Metro Vancouver Municipalities and Parts of Town The City of Richmond, BC Richmond’s Iona Beach Regional Park

Richmond’s Iona Beach Regional Park

Iona Beach

Located near the Vancouver Airport in Richmond, Iona Beach isn’t a top swimming destination. It does though offer great views and places to explore.

The beach is beautiful, but shallow and muddy, so not the best for swimming. The water can actually be pretty gross to walk in. It’s nice and sandy above the high tide line, however, so the beach is a popular spot for picnics and sun bathing. The ocean views are spectacular, and there are great places for walks and bike rides.

 

Metro Vancouver’s Iona Beach Park

Iona Island in Richmond used to be an island. Today though it’s a peninsula. The area is home to a few places of interest, including a Wastewater Treatment Plant (open to visitors), protected wildlife areas and Iona Beach Regional Park. There is also a breakwater-like structure that extends for 4 km out into the water which people can walk along and ride their bikes.

The beach isn’t known for its swimming, but rather more for its trails and wildlife that lives there. That doesn’t mean you can’t swim there, just that the swimming isn’t really anything special.

As is the case with other regional parks there are set operating hours at Iona Beach. During the summer the park is normally open from 7:00 am until 10:00 pm. The hours are slightly different during other seasons. Dogs are allowed in some areas but must be kept on a leash due to the sensitive environmental sections in the region.

The park isn’t far from Vancouver International Airport. You can see planes flying to and from the airport in the distance. Iona Island connects to Sea Island which is the land the airport stands on.

There are two main reasons why people visit Iona Beach Regional Park. One is to explore the area on foot and admire the scenery. The other is to see the different migrating birds on the peninsula.

 

Mt Baker from Iona Beach Park

 

What to Expect

The road from near the Vancouver Airport and Iona Beach Regional Park is long and flat. It can get busy in summer, especially on weekends. At other times it’s quiet and a nice road to ride a bike along.

There is a fair bit of parking at Iona Beach (although it does fill up on hot sunny summer days). Just before the beach area you’ll see the Iona Jetty which stretches out into the water. At the entrance to the beach is a building with washrooms. There is also a hose that you can use in the summer to wash the sand off your feet.

 

Iona Beach at Low Tide

 

The Beach and Water

The beach itself is spectacular, at least to look at. Above the high tide line it’s nice and sandy. There are also logs to sit on. It’s a great place for picnics and hanging out on the sand.

As mentioned above, the water at Iona Beach is kind of gross. That’s because it’s so muddy. The water is often a dirty brown, and the ground is so muddy that you actually sink a few inches into it!

At low tide the beach goes out for miles and looks quite beautiful. If you walk out across the sand, however, (if you can call it sand), you’ll feel the ground oozing between your toes. In some spots you can actually sink more than just a couple of inches! Young ones who like to get muddy will love it! And if you slip and fall, make sure someone has their video camera rolling!

 

Jetty at Iona Beach Park
The Jetty at Iona Beach Park

 

The Jetties at Iona Beach

The park is dominated by two large jetties that jut out into the Strait of Georgia. The main and more popular one is the Iona Jetty which is around 4 km long. It’s primarily made of concrete and has gravel trails on it. There is also a sewage pipe that runs under the jetty.

The other jetty is known as the North Arm Jetty and it’s less popular. The reason for this is because instead of concrete and gravel it’s a plain sandy bar. This makes it less attractive to trek along, although it too is pretty long – it stretches all the way to the University Endowment Lands near UBC!

The trails on the Iona Jetty are flat and easy to walk along. It can sometimes get quite windy out there, but nothing too major besides that. There are also a couple wind shelters in the park for more stormy days, plus a couple of porta-potties along the way.

The Iona Jetty is a popular route for walks and bike rides. It can take a couple of hours to walk to the end and back! If you ride your bike at a leisurely rate you can ride the whole distance in less than 50 minutes. The view is pretty much the same the entire way but spectacular, especially on sunny days.

The cycling route along the jetty is a dirt path. It’s off to the side and just below where people walk.

 

Cycling at End of Iona Jetty
At the End of the Jetty

 

Other and Cycling Walking Trails

Past the beach, on the north side of the park, there are more biking and walking trails. As mentioned above, you can walk almost all the way to the University of British Columbia via the North Arm Jetty. To actually reach the university though you’ll need to swim (and nobody actually does that, or at least they probably shouldn’t).

In the area around the beach there are also some paths and places to explore. There is a lagoon area and marshland that’s popular for bird watching as well.

 

Iona Beach Regional Park

 

Bird Watching at Iona Beach

Similar to places like Boundary Bay Regional Park in Tsawwassen, the Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Delta and Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver, Iona Beach is a popular destination for migratory birds. Its location and natural flora means that during peak seasons you can find thousands of birds in the park.

This makes Iona Beach very popular for bird-watchers and you can often find people with their cameras enjoying the sights of all the area’s feathered creatures. Of course, you have to make sure to keep your distance. The birds’ habitats can be fragile so be careful not to bother them.

 

Pond at Iona Beach Park

 

Other Points of Interest

Below are some other interesting things to know about Iona Regional Park.

  • Dogs are allowed, when on leash, in most areas of the park. They are not, however, permitted on the lower road on the Iona Jetty (which is used by bicycles) or in the marsh areas or intertidal flats (so on the mud when the tide is out).
  • Overnight camping, smoking and campfires are also all prohibited.
  • Some areas along the North Arm Jetty have industrial activities (so aren’t so pretty and not accessible to the public).
  • The Iona Jetty is 4 km long because inside is a giant pipe that pumps the region’s treated sewage waste into the ocean (and they want to dump the waste way out into the water). Despite how squidgy the mud is at the beach at low tide, the water in the area is safe to swim in and tested regularly.
  • Located at 1000 Ferguson Road, so right next to the park, the Iona Waste Water Treatment Plant treats as much as 2 billion litres of wastewater from over half a million Metro Vancouver residents each year.

 

Other Information

For more information, check out Metro Vancouver’s Iona Beach Regional Park webpage.

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