Lush living
In just a few years, and thanks to a burgeoning wine industry, British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley has morphed from a quiet farming region into a sophisticated holiday destination and year-round retreat. Here are 15 reasons to visit the valley that runs from Osoyoos, near the U.S.-Canada border on Highway 97, just over 100 miles north to Vernon:
1. Inland oasis: Water – lots of it – is framed by mountains of pine forest, sage brush, alpine grasses and vineyards. Orchards line the lakeside roads and hillside benches. The climate is dry; in summer, tantalizingly hot. Flowers proliferate, as does wildlife.
2. Fruit: Jokester Rick drives the tractor that pulls the wagons that carry visitors through some of the 250,000 fruit trees, including 16 varieties of apple, owned by Kelowna Land and Orchard – KLO, for short – just 10 minutes from the Kelowna city center.
After the orchard tour, enjoy a cup of perfect apple juice, or taste the apple wines and ice ciders that KLO produces at its Raven Ridge Cidery. Then, back on the road, pick up more fresh fruit – pears, peaches, apricots, plums and cherries – at some of the several hundred roadside fruit stands.
3. Gardens: Also in Kelowna, a purple haze and subtle fragrance envelops the Okanagan Lavender Herb Farm. Do a short, self-guided walk through the 60 lavender varieties, then poke about the country shop filled with lavender products.
4. Wine route: At Dirty Laundry Vineyard, Cher Watkins pours wines while explaining how she and winemaker husband Ron hired a marketing expert to rename the Scherzinger Vineyard that they’d bought from a couple by that surname.
When the expert suggested a moniker that recalls a combined Chinese laundry/gambling den/brothel that operated in nearby Summerland a century ago, Cher’s first reaction was: “Never. Fire him.”
Since then, the owners of what became Dirty Laundry “have never had so much fun,” Cher admits, while making (and selling out of) the Gewürztraminer and other varieties made from the vinifera grapes planted by the Scherzingers.
There are roughly 100 Okanagan wineries. Most can be visited – and all have histories. So load up on info and maps at a regional visitor center, and sidle up to the tasting bars.
5. Farm to table: At Kelowna’s Waterfront Wines Bistro, the menu runs to goat cheese fritters and other tapas-style dishes. Mark Filatow is among young chefs shaking up the Okanagan scene with imaginative dishes of local and seasonal produce.
Another worthy restaurant is the Old Vines Patio at Quails’ Gate Estate Winery in nearby Westbank. Rooms (and patios) with buzz include the Hooded Merganzer Bar and Grill, over the water at the Penticton Lakeside Resort, and the Wildfire Grill in Osoyoos.
6. Farmers’ markets: From May through October, there’s a street market – sometimes two – somewhere in the Okanagan every day but Sunday.
At Penticton’s Saturday market, vegetable farmers include the Cursons, from the Dumplingdale Organic Farm in the Similkameen Valley, west of Osoyoos; and Joe Bienz from Green Hills in Summerland.
Kaya Barron has trucked in from the Darke Lake Ranch above Summerland to sell her mother’s “serenity gardens,” while Linda Bouley shows off her bent-willow chairs and flower baskets.
7. Artisan cheeses: One of a handful of hard and soft cheese-makers is Carmelis Goat Cheese Artisan, on the mountainside near Kelowna. Tour the state-of-the-art plant and watch 100 goats with bloated udders rush to their afternoon milking. Then taste the results of all this effort.
8. Living history: At the Okanagan Falls Heritage Museum, the Bassett House (available for $400 from a 1906 department store catalog) is the very picture of pioneer life. OK Falls hasn’t changed much, reports museum guide Barbara: “No police – calm and collected.”
In Kelowna, check out the B.C. Orchard Industry Museum and the Father Pandosy Mission, a Provincial Heritage Site on the Mission Creek Greenway.
At Summerland, ride the Kettle Valley Steam Railway for 16 kilometers, including a precipitous trestle crossing. Moored in Penticton, the luxury paddlewheeler SS Sicamous offers self-guided tours and live evening theater through August.
9. Culture: The Orchard Museum is in Kelowna’s Cultural District, along with a theater, more museums, artist studios and galleries.
At the Alternator Gallery in the Rotary Centre for the Arts, artist-in-residence Gabriel Akagawa, from Chicago, is assembling a paper garden on the theme of recycling. He says of Kelowna: “My work is partly about social change, and I can see that it’s coming to this community pretty readily.”
10. Beaches: At both ends of Penticton, sandy beaches invite almost every watersport. Connecting these lakefronts, the Okanagan River channel is popular for riding (rentable) rubber tubes with the current. Motels and hotels throughout the city include toasty swimming pools and, in some cases, water slides.
Of course, beaches are found all along the almost contiguous lakes that form the spine of the Okanagan. Some are tranquil and weedy, others pebbly and almost deserted; a few, like those near Osoyoos, are so sun-baked I dare you to walk in the sand in your bare feet.
11. Wilderness parks: Hiking, biking, bird-watching, rock climbing, mountain biking, horseback riding, fishing, boating and swimming are available in some of the region’s provincial parks. Among the loveliest are Vaseux Lake, celebrated for its wildlife, and Haynes Point, jutting into Osoyoos Lake. Both allow camping, but reserve well ahead.
12. Golf: With more than 50 courses in the Thompson-Okanagan region, golf is always at hand. Predator Ridge, near Vernon, may be the most celebrated.
In the sage-covered hills of Kelowna you’ll find Gallagher’s Canyon, The Bear and The Quail, the latter two operated by the Okanagan Golf Club.
13. Desert: So exquisite and threatened is the northern Sonora Desert, in the South Okanagan, that Parks Canada is considering a national reserve there.
Meanwhile, visitors to the Osoyoos area can experience its flora and fauna at the Desert Centre, with winding boardwalks through the landscape and nighttime tours; and the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre, with live cameras showing nesting bats feeding, and a “rattlesnake hotel.”
14. Festivals: In Penticton, the summer Beach Blanket Film Festival and longtime Peach Festival are family favorites. The Kelowna Regatta in mid-July is another biggie. Others are drawn to the spring, summer and fall wine festivals.
15. Lifestyle: Charles Hurtubise, manager of Kelowna’s Waterfront Wines, says the Okanagan attracts people who, if not actually young, have a youthful outlook.
“You see lots of people here who don’t act their age – if that makes sense,” he says.
It does, I think.