BEARFOOT CANADA Explore a New World of Discovery

Bearfoot Canada is your travel portal to unique and exciting Canadian experiences. Visitors can explore nature, adventure and culture on one of the many Bearfoot Routes throughout the British Columbia Interior. Walk, bike, canoe or drive The Canadian Desert; The Monashee; The Golden Mile and more....

Sunrise brings this world alive with spectacular color in a mosaic of landscape, and sounds that will take your breath away. In Canada's desert, it's a chance to explore our extraordinary changing planet.

Tucked into the southern most corner of British Columbia's beautiful Okanagan Valley the desert region of the Similkameen boasts extraordinary habitat and is home to one of North America's most fragile and endangered ecosystems. The area hosts one of the largest concentrations of species at risk (over 100 rare plants and over 300 rare invertebrates) in Canada and is of international importance.

This region may be home to a new national park that celebrates the northern most part of the great Sonoran Desert that stretches from Mexico. While this area is known by many across the country, it's still considered off the beaten path and provides a great chance for travelers to visit an area rich in diverse eco-systems and scenery whether walking area trails or exploring the drivescape.

This part of BC, includes the towns of Osoyoos, Oliver, Keremeos and Cawston, and has more species at risk than any other region of BC. Canyon wrens, white-headed woodpeckers, badgers, California bighorn sheep, tiger salamanders, spadefoot toads, pallid bats, spotted bats, scorpions, and rattlesnakes can all be found here.

Both Osoyoos and Oliver are good reason to plan your visit today rather than in the distant future. Here, travelers still have a chance to see the Okanagan as quaintness amidst the hillsides of orchards and grasslands. These two towns are quickly disappearing into the urban abyss of realestate developments, vineyards and golf courses.

Oliver the Wine Capital of Canada will eventually live up to that notoriety given the growth of the wine industry, so too will Osoyoos, which bills itself as Desert Wine Country. If you have not visited Osoyoos lately, do so; you will not recognize the place. It will eventually be the premier Okanagan destination for vacationers seeking this unique desert experience. The new national park will add to that distinction.

As the only desert in Canada, Osoyoos boasts the lowest rainfall, the highest temperatures, the warmest lakes in Canada, and whose fine wines match any wines from anywhere, from France to California. Translated from the local Inkaneep native dialect, Osoyoos means 'where the water narrows' or 'sand bar across' an apt description for the way this town spans a narrow part of Osoyoos Lake in the Southern Okanagan. Originally named "Soo-Yoos", an O is believed to have been added to lend a more dignified sound for pioneering anglephones.

All this interest and development remains good news for tourism and economic development boosters, but within all of this opportunity to eventually visit a polished destination, there is also something lost, that should be explored while travelers have a chance.

A weekend that mixes Osoyoos with Keremeos can give visitors a chance to avoid traffic and the crowds with lots of opportunities to explore the landscape of the desert without the scars of development. Here are a few choices where a careful traveler with a camera can preserve some pretty good memories of the landscape, culture and habitat of this unique part of Canada.

The Nk'Mip Desert & Heritage Centre

Located in Osoyoos, Nk'Mip will be opening a new and improved heritage center this June. The center celebrates thousands of years of Okanagan First Nations habitation on desert lands and provides on-site cultural tours, programs and interactive displays reflecting the unique and contemporary experience of a desert attraction based on the rich heritage of the Okanagan people. The mission of the Nk'Mip Desert & Heritage Centre is to promote respect and understanding of the living culture of the Okanagan People and conserve and interpret Canada's only desert.

Daily guided and self guided tours as well as special events can include: Bird Walks, All About Rattlesnakes, Bagging Big Bugs, Traditional Canoe Making, Astronomy Nights, First Nations Performance Arts, and Extended Desert Hikes to name a few!

The Desert Centre

Located 9 km north of Osoyoos, this interactive interpretive education and research facility offers an insight into this sensitive ecosystem including a 1.5km elevated boardwalk. During May to October, a guided tour takes you along the boardwalk that winds through the arid shrubs and grasses to four interpretive kiosks. You will learn about desert ecology, ecological restoration and the conservation of this threatened and fragile ecosystem. Tours last about an hour. The only access to the boardwalk is on a guided interpretive tour.

Osoyoos Lake Oxbows and

International Bicycling and Hiking Trail

The Oxbows is a wetland restoration area and is located at the north end of Osoyoos Lake and remains a perfect area for birdwatching. As part of, the Haynes' Lease Ecological Reserve, you will be entering some of the best-known haunts for migratory and resident birds. Don't forget your camera and binoculars. The access to the Oxbows is the same as the International Bicycling and Hiking Trail, all located at the north end of Osoyoos Lake and running parallel to the Okanagan River Channel. This 18.4km trail is perfect for biking between the many wineries in the area. The parking lot is accessed on Road 22 off Hwy 97, eight kilometers north of Osoyoos. To access the Oxbows walk south of the parking lot while the bike and hiking trail begins in a northerly direction.

Spotted Lake

Nine kilometres west of Osoyoos on Highway 3 enroute to Keremeos, is Klikuk, the Spotted Lake, containing one of the world's highest concentrations of minerals, including epsom salts, calcium, magnesium and many other trace minerals. The visual characteristics can easily be seen on the lakes surface in the summer when the water evaporates and crystallizes, making the large white-ringed spots visible. The lakes healing mud and waters were used to alleviate aches and pains. The lake is on private land, and is therefore not accessible, but you can get a good view from the highway.

This is also a great place for a gentle downhill cycle tour. Consider the trip early in the morning at sunrise. It really offers a traveler a chance to feel and breath the desert with a pretty spectacular landscape. Every time I've been there, traffic has not been a problem, however, mid-day you need to have a high tolerance for heat, after all this is a desert.

The Keremeos Gristmill

Keremeos Grist Mill is home to one of the finest displays of pioneer life and heritage gardens in the Okanagan. Visitors can view a historic water-powered Grist Mill built in 1877, by Barrington Price. Now Western Canada's oldest flour mill, and the only one remaining with most of its machinery intact, it provides a unique opportunity to preserve and present an industry that played an important part in the settlement history of British Columbia.

Real Fruit Stands and a Covered Bridge

Keremeos is an Interior Indian word with three meanings: "wind channel in the mountains", "land cut in the middle" and "where the creek sinks away". The red rock colouring the landscape creates a memorable setting for this town, which represents one of the last places in the Okanagan where you can find a significant number of orchards, which sell the fruit that they grow from a fruit stand on the side of the road. It's like going back in time.

The heritage feel continues on the outskirts of town when you can travel across one of the few covered bridges remaining on the continent. The Red Bridge of Keremeos spans the Similkameen River and is a reminder of a time when the V.V.& E. Railway ran up the valley. The line has been abandoned for years now and this bridge is the last of three such structures, which could be seen in the lower valley only a decade ago. Motorist now travel across the covered bridge to the south side of the Similkameen River and to the Ashnola and Cathedral Lakes Park.

The Keremeos Columns

This unusual geological represents natural basalt columns nearly 100 feet high and extending for some distance along the face of a cliff northeast of the town. Formed from 30-million year-old volcanic activity, the columns can't be seen from the main road. Travelers must turn east at the Keremeos Cemetery and drive about half a mile to a gate, beyond which a road winds up the slopes. Visitors are requested to seek permission from private landowners before embarking on the four-mile hike to the columns, which is located in the Keremeos Columns Provincial Park. While removing rock and minerals from the park is forbidden, the entire area is rich for the avid rockhound. Rhodonite, jasper, agate and petrified wood can be found.

Mix your visit to the desert with a spiritual and culinary experience. Perhaps a guided walking excursion; or listening to the meditative rhythm of ancient drum chants; and for sure a relaxing merlot on a shady patio. Canada's desert is a great place to explore any time of year, and offers visitors a great chance to explore a part of North America with the sounds, aroma and sites that are truly unforgettable.

Don Elzer writes and comments about travel, current affairs and the natural world. He is the Director of the Wildcraft Forest Ecomuseum and Bearfoot Canada and is the editor of The Monster Guide.

If you would like to carry his syndicated columns or features in your publication contact us.

FEATURING

The Nk'Mip Desert & Heritage Centre

The Desert Centre

Osoyoos Lake Oxbows and

International Bicycling and Hiking Trail

Spotted Lake, a covered bridge and more...