Penticton Long Weekend
A long weekend in BC's wine country
Helen's job gives her odd Friday's and
Mondays off
which makes forming long weekend really easy. Just after the July
long weekend, Helen had one such weekend and we decided to book a
weekend in a Bed and Breakfast in the Okanagan. The original plan
was Nuramata (it came recommended) but we quickly found the places in
our price range (read: less than $200 a night) booked up so we went to
Penticton nearby. Turns out we couldn't be happier with the place
we got.
Okanagan
Mountain Park
Cool - so you are in the Okanagan - now
what? There is an obvious
answer (I'll get to the later), but lets start with some less obvious
things to do.
On our first day (after breakfast) we went
for a drive up to Okanagan Mountain Park. I remember a few years
ago there was a
big
fire near Kelowna (some houses burned) - turns out it was Okanagan
Mount Park that burned (most of the park).
The road up is a bit rough but no trees were
down. We were the
only car in the parking lot. It seems like most trees were burned
dead but some trees did actually survive and have new growth on
them. Fireweed is a big winner - filling in much of the open
space.
There is a lot of hiking
available in the park
(several multi day
trips) but we didn't have that kind of time. We picked a shorter
hike out to a viewpoint.
Kettle
Valley Railway
If you drive up to the Okanagon Mountain Park,
you pass one of vehicle
entrances to the Kettle Valley Railway. This really surprised me
- I thought the KVR was a bike/walking only trail but sure enough you
could drive down the line, potentially for km. We stopped at one
of the tunnels and took a few photos.
One of the amazing things
about wildlife is
how different it is based
on the local climate and geography. Even through we were only a
few km from Okanagan Mountain, the plants were completely
different.
Penticton
Farmers Market
Saturday
morning in Penticton there is a farmers market. A few blocks of
the
main street are blocked off and you can buy local products.
I'm a
big fan of markets so
we went as soon as we were done our breakfast at the B&B. A
few things surprised me. First - this market is busy - many
vendors (especially food) sold out in the first hours. Second,
some vendors spend a lot of energy on "marketing" - handsome
presentation of their goods - and are rewarded for it. Finally, I
was surprised there weren't people selling wine. Turns out
the selling of wine in Vineyards is covered as a special exception -
even though they are local farmers, wineries can't sell in this kind of
venue.
Brent
Mountain
After our Farmers Market trip, we decided to do
a more substantial hike. We dropped into the Tourist information
center in Pentiction and they had a very helpful brochure covering the
local hiking trails. Brent Mountain is a little out of town
(toward the Apex Alpine Ski area), but even the drive over was
interesting.
We figured this hike was about 5km each
way. You really know when
you hit the alpine - the trees getting really small and the views open
up. Once we were into meadows we saw Ground Squirrel
colonies were all over the mountain top.
And without much warning, you get to the
top. At the very top of
the mountain taking advantage of the 360° view is a no longer used
forest fire watch. The view here goes on and - the horizon is
pretty much flat (not spiky mountains like the coast) but the view is
still dramatic.
We walked back to the car. All day we
saw only
one other person (a postman on his day off). Considering how nice
the hike was (better than the hikes immediately around Vancouver) I was
quite surprised we didn't see more people. Tired, we made it back
to the B&B and enjoyed dinner on the patio.
Wine
Tours
Assuming you have water, this area is really
good at
growing stuff. Fruit was the big bread winner for this area until
they figured out that the higher end varietals of grapes will survive
the cold winters here. Wine production ramped up and now this
area is known for it's wine
production.
Grape production now dominates the agriculture
in the Okanagan
area. Our B&B hosts own a number of farm fields (and three
wineries) and they are in the process of converting even more of their
fields to grapes.
Visiting Wineries is quite a
bit of fun. While a well supplied BC
Liquor store has most of the wine you can find in valley and thanks to
our liquor laws, the wineries aren't any cheaper, dedicating a few
hours or a few days to tasting allows you to discover wines you like
and refine your palette.
A great weekend even with all of the
driving. I've been asked
when the best time to go to the Okanagan is. Some of the wineries
had already sold out by the time we arrived (early July). That
said, Okanagan fruit (Peaches, cherries, apricots) were just coming
ripe when we arrived - mid to late July and there would be a large
supply. Your call - just book your accommodation early.
Tags: flower(15), Okanagan(13), shallow depth of field(5), wine(5), panorama(4), market(4)
People: Helen(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > John's Overnight Page > Penticton Long Weekend
I don't konw you but I love your photos. I am also amazed at the plant life everywhere I go. It is lovely to see people appriciate the litle things. thanks
Willow Edwards
Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 00:23:06
Last Modified Saturday, January 21st, 2023 at 23:43:44 Edit
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