Originally called N'wha-kwi-sen (smoothing stones), it was later mapped as Rivière de l’Anse-au-Sable (Sandy Bay River), the name Mission Creek was adopted in 1860 in honour of the Catholic Oblate Mission established by Father Pandosy and other settlers.

[1] The Creek rises in the Greystoke Mountain Range and runs west about 43 kilometres (27 mi) before emptying into Okanagan Lake south of Kelowna.

The landlocked salmon likely made their way into the Okanagan when a remnant of Glacial Lake Penticton was connected by streams to the Pacific Ocean.

Geological features along the trail are numerous and diverse, including; Layer Cake Hill, the Pinnacle, the White Lake Formation, hoodoos, exposures of ancient river systems and gigantic boulders dropped by the Fraser Glacier.

[5] Mission Creek has been heavily modified through narrowing of the channel by the building of dikes for flood control from East Kelowna Bridge to the river mouth at Okanagan Lake.