First of all we’re thankful to have discovered this forum. We recently moved to Vancouver and have been doing many hikes out here. Being from the prairies we don’t mind the snow on the hikes, but we would like to get away from it May long weekend so we were thinking the Kelowna area would be perfect. Any suggestions would be great!
Thanks
Rags
I have a couple suggestions but they depend on what type of hiking gear you have. For example; Do you like an open fire or do you use a backpackers stove? Do you like to build a shelter to sleep in or do you prefer a free forest service site or just a piece of Crown Land?
I am going up to the Aberdeen Plateau with a group of kids but didn’t plan a long hike because of the snow patches up there (around 1200 meters. My only worry with snow patches is that some areas it will be deep and if you don’t bring snow shoes, it could get tuff!
We will have a short hike to one of the many lakes that are on the Plateau (some maps call it the Interior Plateau and Thompson Plateau) and then practice some fun shelter, raft and fire building.
I think this is called backcountry hiking.
We want to hike to a place to set up our tent…no campground. The second day, more hiking and then set up camp. We would like to light a fire but if it’s restricted in the backcountry then we will adhere to that. Is that what is considered a forest service site or crown land? Thanks for responding and we look forward to your response. Any other questions by all means ask.
On a different subject, this is time consuming but in a good way. Great site, we truly appreciate it.
I have a couple suggestions for you. Both the following suggestions are provincial parks in the area. There are other possible multi day backpacking routes that are not in provincial parks but I still need to do more research on the trails prior to promoting them.
An excellent choice to hike would be Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park. I would park at the South Parking lot that you can get to from Chute Lake Road near Naramata and hike into and around the lakes as well as maybe down to Wildhorse Canyon. No campfires here though. The whole area was burnt from the 2003 firestorm and is interesting to walk through now as it comes back to life. https://tracksandtrails.ca/category/hiking-trails/canada-hiking/british-columbia-hiking/kelowna-hiking-trails/okanagan-mountain-provincial-park/
I have not been to Darke Lake Provincial Park and Eneas Lake Provincial Park just slightly SW of Peachland but I do believe they would be a fantastic area to hike. The two paks are approx. 3 km apart as the crow flys or by the looks of the trail / road from Darke Lake to Eneas Lakes about 10 km by foot. The road may be a boring one to hike, I am not sure.
I would suggest to take the dirt road right to Darke Lake and camp there for a night then drive to Eneas Lake and hike some of the area via a base camp. Darke Lake Provincial Park has 5 rustic campsites and pit toilets.
Eneas Lake Provincial Park has four small lakes and a cabin at the end of Tuch Lake. My experience with backcountry cabin is one that involves rats nibbling on ear lobes. I prefer my own shelter or tent! 🙂
Aside from hiking the Okanagan Mountain Park area or the Trans Canada Trail along the KVR, I find it difficult to suggest a backpacking trip in the Okanagan as there are not any real developed backpacking areas.
Hope to hear from you after the weekend! – even though i do agree with you that this is time consuming 🙂