I hope people don't mind me posting some Okanagan Valley photos here as well.
This past weekend was Family Day long weekend here in BC and we drove to Kelowna for some skiing. On Saturday we went to ski at Silver Star Resort nearby Vernon which turned out to be a very nice resort with many great runs.
There was a lot of snow on top of the mountain and trees were snapping from the weight of the snow!
Beautiful vistas from the summit.
The next day we changed to Big White, which is another huge resort a bit east of Kelowna. Weather was more cloudy there, but the snow was fantastic.
Driving from Kelowna back to Vancouver this time of year can be a roller coaster of seasons.
Approaching the 1700 meter (5500ft) summit along Highway 97 Connector.
It's crazy how these mountain highway's have 120km/h (70mph) speed limits throughout winter!
Back in September on the Labour Day long weekend me and my wife made a brief two-night visit to the small town of Princeton which is an interesting town with a long mining history.
Unfortunately the weather was very mixed on that weekend and we had but rain and shine.
The town center is pretty nice, although very quiet early in the morning. There are still some nice breakfast places in downtown worth visiting.
Vermilion Avenue is the main street of Princeton.
Princeton Museum is said to be a nice place to visit, but we actually didn't check it out. Perhaps another time.
China Ridge Trails should be an excellent place for cross-country skiing, but for hiking the trails are not that exciting and offer not many views.
As we had plenty of time, we figured why not drive to the nearby town of Tulameen. The small road there turned out to be a nice drive alongside a canyon.
As mentioned, the Princeton area is rich with mining history and the newest copper mine in BC is located in here. It is located on the aptly named Copper Mountain and has three huge open pits. Unfortunately there is no way to see into these pits without trespassing, as it is a private area.
The mine has a huge tailwater pond between two mountains. The sight made me wonder how sturdy the dam is as upon a major breach the water could wipe out whole Princeton...
Highway 3 is the highway connecting Princeton to the Lower Mainland and Vancouver. It's a nice drive and there is quite a bit new road construction going on adding new passing lanes.
The highway takes one through Manning Park Provincial Park where we made a brief stop. We had never noticed that there is actually a pretty spectacular scenic drive up one of the mountain face, going all the way up to 2000 meters!
At that altitude the weather was only +3 degrees above zero with low-hanging clouds, but it looked like a nice area with some amazing hiking trails in the summer!
Back in Lower Mainland the weather had improved and so ended our nice little trip. Hopefully you enjoyed.
We spent our Easter long weekend up in Sun Peaks. While there was no snow in Kamloops, the snow base up in the village was a nice 200 cm. It was only our second time to Sun Peaks and we did enjoy the non-crowded runs.
Summer in Okanagan Valley is amazing. Here are some photos of Kelowna from few years ago.
Kelowna has a nice beachfront with some well-maintained properties.
Ogopogo is Canada's very own Loch Ness monster.
Former Kettle Valley Railway has been converted to a nice bicycle trail not too far from the city.
It's an easy ride since the route is almost flat.
There are several rail trestles to cross and some of them stand really tall.
Knox Mountain is a nice park with a spectacular lookout of downtown Kelowna.
A beautiful view awaits one up on the top.
In 2021 there are many new high-rises being built in Kelowna and the skyline should already look quite different today.
Lake Okanagan is a 135-kilometres long and very deep. Even the bridge across the lake is a floating bridge due to the depth. There is plenty of area for Ogopogo to be hiding below the surface...
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