Winery's and Farms

The Okanagan is a great area to visit BC wineries and farms that produce a variety of different products from fresh fruit, lavender, honey, goats milk gelato and cheese. In the summer the variety of fresh fruit is fantastic.

Mission Hills Winery

Mission Hills is one of the larger, well established winery's in the area.  There are also a lot of smaller family wineries that do not export out of British Columbia.

Quails Gate Winery View from Patio

Quails Gate Winery is open year round for dinner. We had an exceptional meal. The menu is limited but the quality is outstanding. The wine is also exceptional but don't expect to pay top dollar for the meal.

Okanagan Lake from Penticton

Driving south from West Kelowna along Okanagan Lake there are numerous wine growing areas to explore. Check out Peachland, Summerland, Penticton. A little farther is Naramata Bench, Okanagan Falls,Oliver, and Osoyoos. Venturing north of Kelowna you can visit wineries in Lake County. If you are visiting in April check to make sure that the winery you want to visit is open.  Many of the smaller wineries have limited hours in the winter and spring.

Most wineries charger a small fee to taste a flight of wine (four or five samples). Before tasting check to see that the wines they are offering for tasting is what you are interested in trying.  All the wineries we visited did not charge for the tasting if you purchased a wine. Some wines are only sold at the winery so be sure to check if you want to purchase the wine once you arrive home. I noticed that very few of the wineries we visited offered crackers to clear you mouth between wines.

There are also lots of tour companies willing to take you to a variety of wineries.  This is a great choice if you do not want to drive after sampling. I fined that to truly enjoy a tasting I can really only visit one or two wineries in a day.

During our visit we also went to Carnelis Goat Cheese farm to taste the gelato made from fresh goats milk.  They also had a variety of cheeses make from goats milk. There were lots of samples available. If you choose to take a container of gelato away remember to consider the temperature before you get your product home, you may need to have a cooler.


We also went to Vernon to visit Plant Bee Honey Farm and Meadery. This was a great experience as they have a glass beehive so that you could see the bees working and even spot the queen bee.  There are a variety of samples and if you are old enough you can also taste the mead which is a wine made from honey.

What ever you are looking to do there is a great variety in the Okanagan Valley.

Hiking in the Okanagan

We discovered that there are lots of opportunities to hike around Kelowna with a variety of different levels of difficulty. Between provincial and regional parks you have a great variety of trails and difficulty.

Bear Creek Provincial Park: (West Kelowna)

This was a small park that is an easy trail with stairs and a hill to climb. Great views of Okanagan Lake, the trail was busy with families and dog walkers,  it was Easter Sunday when we did the walk. Below the trails is a very nice provincial campground that was full of R.V.'s.

Shannon Lake Regional Park: (West Kelowna)

This small park and is easily accessible.  This is a great spot for people to trout fish.  There were lots of people fishing from the shore or the small pier.  Walking here is not very strenuous and is disability accessible.

Spion Kop Hiking Trails: (Lake Country)

View of Wood Lake

North of Kelowna there is an area where the hikes can be easy or more challenging.  This is Spion Kop Hiking Trails. The area is surrounded by new houses but you can escape and feel far away from everyone. The lower trail follows a bench and over looks Wood Lake.  There are two underpasses that you use to walk the trail across highway 97.  The area has excellent signage so that you don't get lost.

Map and Trail Markers

Mission Creek Regional Park and Trails (Kelowna)

This is in central Kelowna and an excellent area for a walk.  You can choose a flat trail along the river and go for miles or walk the hill and visit the numerous small lake within the park. A great area to take children or walk the dog. There are numerous access points along Mission Creek but if you start at Springfield and Durnim there is the EECO Centre that you can explore. If you are visiting in the fall check out the spawning channel for Kokanee Salmon.

Knox Mountain (Kelowna)

This is a great location to get views of downtown Kelowna and Okanagan Lake. For the energetic you can walk to the top of the mountain or for the less athletic take a drive to the top when the gate opens.  There are several trails that traverse the mountain.  At the top you can also choose several different directions.  A park caretaker lives at the top. The day we walked the top there were six deer grazing up the hill behind the pavilion.  We also saw interesting birds living in the forest.

Gellatly Heritage Regional Park (West Kelowna)

Okanagan Lake

This is not a very big park but there is a nice pebble beach on Lake Okanagan.  You can walk around this hazel nut farm and learn about the Gellantly Family and their influence on the history of the area.

Hazel Nut Trees

Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park (Kelowna)

There are lots of trails in this park and there is good signage. You can pick up a map at the Visitors Center in downtown Kelowna. You enter the parking are off of Stewart Road East. There is an interperative trail that helps visitors learn more about the area. This is a multi use area for hiking, biking and horses.  When we visited the area is so large that we never met anyone else on the trails we walked.  There are great views of Okanagan Lake once you make the climb up the mountain.  The area was touched by the 2012 fire that threatened Kelowna. You can experience first hand how the earth rejuvenates itself after a fire.

Forest is Rejuvenating

Kettle Valley Railway (KVR) Trestles

Were not accessible at this time of the year. But this would be an awesome area to hike or bike along the old trestle bridges.  This is a must for our next visit.

Kelowna British Columbia Road Trip

The Trans Canada Highway

So we decided to drive to Kelowna BC from Edmonton.  We needed a break and we have not been to the Okanagan Valley for a long time. April is not always the best time to be driving as the weather can be unpredictable and we certainly experienced a variety of conditions during our drive.  We left Edmonton in a snow storm but it was clear once we reached Ponka and the rest of the drive to Banff was great.

Lac Des Arc Lake

We stayed in Banff overnight and had an opportunity to walk around town and drive to Vermillion Lakes. We decided that a stop in Banff would break up the drive. It would have been better to drive a little farther so that the second days drive would not been as long.

Vermillion Lakes Banff with Tunnel Mountain

Kicking Horse rest stop was a great place to take a comfort break. Specially after driving through the pass with snow, sleet and rain.

Rogers Pass was also lots of snow with very few places to have a rest stop so plan ahead if you are driving in the winter. Once in B.C, the road is two lanes. There are frequent passing lanes along the way but the trucks and trailers do hold the traffic up. The time zone changes at the Rogers Pass so don't forget to set you watches back one hour from Alberta time.

Before reaching Field British Columbia be sure to stop and look at the Spiral Tunnels. The trains make their way through the tunnels  are a gradual climb or descent to get over the Continental Divide. The stop was full of snow in April so we did not stop this time.

Round House 

Once you get to Sicamous you know that the weather is changing as the fruit stands start to appear. April is not the time to be shopping for fresh fruit here.

Mara Lake Rest Stop

On Mara Lake there are lots of house boats for rent. This rest stop allows for a quick break before we continue our drive.

After our seven hour drive we were ready to check into our resort. We had a condo booked at the Manteo Resort on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna.



Check out the detailed descriptions of our hiking, touring and wine tasting while in Kelowna.

Sunset from our patio on Lake Okanagan

To complete the circuit we decided to go home a different route by traveling through B.C. to Jasper, Alberta on the Yellowhead Trail. The total trip with driving around Kelowna and down to Ossoyos was about 2500 km.