Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
That huge surface parking in the lower part of the pic looks like prime real estate. It's got to be government-owned...
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Yup, that's part of CFB Halifax. The one big oblong surface parking lot used to be a rail corridor, a long time ago. Also notable is CFB Shearwater (the large airport in the upper left corner which cuts off Eastern Passage from the urban core). I think 1/3 if not 0/3 of the runways are in usable condition, and it's mostly used by helicopters, but still takes up as much space as a full airport.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TorontoDrew
What's on that Island? Can you camp on it?
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The largest, heavily forested island is McNab's Island; it's partly managed by Parks Canada and partly by the province, with a few private properties. There are a handful of people who live there (not sure whether year-round or just during the summer), several great beaches, lots of wildlife, blueberries and decent fishing, and the ruins of several old fortifications and an old township. At one point (likely around 1900) there were a few industrial buildings there and an amusement park. Historically it's been a bit cumbersome to get there but there have been efforts over the last decade to improve access. There's no public ferry, but more and more private shuttles have been operating and the city's boating infrastructure in general has been improving, so there's been more people sailing/kayaking over, etc. There's a designated camping area but it's common for people to just pitch a tent somewhere in a forest clearing or along a beach.
There's a smaller island immediately to the east called Lawlor's, AFAIK it's also a provincial park but there isn't really any convenient access or infrastructure. You can easily swim over (probably even walk most of the way) from Eastern Passage at low tide.
The smallest one is called George's Island, it's managed by Parks Canada and until recently there was only public access a couple days per year due to lack of infrastructure (only one small dock and limited electrical and plumbing). There have been recent investments and it's technically open to the public now. It's pretty small (maybe the size of a couple football fields) and just has a small fort, a lighthouse, and a few other small buildings. It also apparently has the largest concentration of snakes per square metre of any known place. I don't think you can camp on this one; there isn't really much space anyway and it's all pretty exposed.
So in summary, we have 3 main islands in the harbour, all of which are nominally "parks", but only 2 of them are really accessible to the public (and only if they have a boat or hire or rent one to get there) and until very recently visiting even one of those two would get you a fine unless you worked something out with Parks Canada. It's been great to see McNab's and George's open back up; for a long time they were these basically unexplorable places that could just be seen from a short distance across the water.
A few years ago when Pokemon Go was at its peak, there was fierce competition over Pokemon gyms on the islands that most people couldn't get to easily
I would say that McNab's is actually the best park in the Halifax area overall. It's almost like a rough-around-the-edges Olmstead type park that just sort of happened by accident, rather than actually being planned as a park. It's similar to Point Pleasant but larger and better in basically every way, although the infrastructure is a degree more rustic. The main beach is easily the nicest oceanfront beach "within 1/2 hour of downtown".
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