Driving in from the north, getting into the outskirts of Kamloops is an experience you would not expect in Canada. Almost without warning the lush green forests and meadows are gone. In their place is a semi-arid desert environment complete with ponderosa pines, sagebrush and the occasional tumbleweed. Did we somehow cross the border and drive all the way to Arizona without realizing it we thought? Nope, we just entered the most arid part of Canada, the Thompson River Valley.
This was extremely cool for us as it was totally unexpected. We did not expect to see a desert landscape until we were further south in California or Nevada. Here we were though, in British Columbia driving through canyons of sagebrush. We stopped at a few overlooks to check out red rock formations and drove through towns with very western sounding names such as Cache Creek as well as some with not western names like Boston Flats.
Kamloops Lake
As we got closer to Kamloops, the massive Kamloops lake came into view. It was an amazing sight as the road that we were on (now on Trans-Canada Route 1) was high above the lake giving you a great view of the lake and the valley surrounding it. The road then curved down towards the lake almost crisscrossing itself until it reached the bottom. As it was lunchtime Julie and I stopped in the small town on the far western side of the lake called Savona. Here we found a park with a beach in it. As it was Sunday the park and beach were packed with people laying in the sun or swimming in the lake. At this point we felt like we had truly come a long way from Alaska. Here we were in a desert landscape surrounded by people in bathing suits. We had to pinch ourselves because we really had a hard time believing that this too was part of Canada. It was so cool.
As we sat and ate lunch, we did a bit of research on Kamloops, figuring out what there was to do and what to see. We knew we were going to check out the downtown at some point but as it was Sunday we wanted to go someplace where maybe they would be closed on a Monday. During our research we found that the Kamloops area is a newer area for wine, and they have a few wineries. Julie & I are no strangers to wine. Living in Rochester, NY for years and having the Finger Lakes Wine region so close we had spent many weekends exploring and tasting different wines over the years. This was always fun, so we decided to go check out of few of this area’s wineries.
Kamloops Wine Trail
The first winery that we went to was on the east side of the city called Harper’s Trail Winery. This turned out to be a great first stop as they had a nice size parking lot (plenty of space for Bubbles), a large outdoor patio area and a good size tasting room. We walked in and had a tasting. We ended up liking their rosé. Here we also bought a hat as we were visiting a good friend in California, Melissa in a few weeks and her dog’s name is Harper. Harper isn’t the most common name in the world so we figured she would like it.
From Harper’s Trail we tried to go to Sagewood Winery. This was highly recommended by the people at Harper’s Trail. When we arrived, it felt like one of the small wineries that we liked to go to in NY. The place was tiny and only sat 6 people. The room that it was in could only maybe hold 12 if everyone was friendly enough. Unfortunately for us all the seats were taken when we arrived and very shortly after that a large bachelorette party arrived. We didn’t think this scene would make for an enjoyable experience, so we decided to move on and come back here on our next visit to Kamloops.
We hopped back into Bubbles and headed to another one of Harper’s Trail recommendations, Privato Vineyard & Winery on the north side of town. This turned out to be an awesome place. This vineyard was located on a huge property that was located next to the North Thompson River. This meant that there were actual tree’s lining the driveway and scattered through the property. When we arrived we walked in to a full house. We were told that we could wait or that there was a small hard cider company on the property as well. We decided to go check them out and come back for the wine tasting.
The Woodward Cider Company turned out to be in the next building over. We figured that it was all owned by the same company/family. There was no one waiting for a cider tasting so we walked in, had a tasting and was able to ask the cider-tender all of our pressing cider related questions. The cider ended up being so good we bought a few of the 12oz bottles of their Blue Tractor Modern Dry cider. It was quite tasty. We then walked back over to the wine tasting building and had our tasting. Here we were pleasantly surprised on just how good the wine was. We have not had too much wine from desert wineries aside from a few in New Mexico but did love how the reds tasted, bold and flavorful. We of course bought a bottle.
Once our tasting was done, we wandered outside where there were lawn chairs set up under a lot of the property’s trees. As we felt that we should wait awhile before driving so we grabbed some water and some snacks from the van. The scenery around this winery was stunning. As we were right next to the river, we were sitting on grass under a tree but could see the desert landscape on either side of the valley with red rock, sagebrush and the occasional ponderosa pine. The actual vineyard was right next to us as well so the color of the bright green grass, red and purples of the grapes and the light and dark browns of the canyon and mountain walls around us made for some amazing views. After we had our water and snacks we hopped into Bubbles and headed over to our campground for the night.
McArthur Island Park & The Tournament Capital of Canada
The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast. It was a beautiful day out. As we had not biked in quite a while we decided to go for a ride. In looking at a map of Kamloops we noticed a huge island park called McArthur Island Park. On the way to the park we passed a sign stating Kamloops – The Tournament Capital of Canada. Once we entered the park we soon learned why. As Kamloops is one of the warmer spots in Canada a lot of the outdoor tournaments are held in Kamloops and at McArthur Park specifically. The park grounds had areas for both baseball tournaments (12 fields), soccer tournaments (9 fields), ice hockey rink, curling rink, tennis courts, lawn bowling, a skate park, bike & walking trails and even a butterfly garden. We thought that this would be a good place to get our biking in.
We arrived at the park and set up our bikes and set out. The biking & walking path circumvents the island and goes for 3km (1.8mi). We rode around checking out all of the facilities and soon enough were back at the van. As we didn’t feel that going 3k’s was enough we decided to take a second loop of the island. This time we saw a few different things including marmots! Marmots are beaver or ground hog looking animals. Here there were quite a few of them, we probably saw around 20 animals in total. Every now and then we would come across a group of them and we would stop and watch for a bit before moving on. Eventually we left the marmots alone and continued and finished our bike ride.
Bubbles goes to the Truck Wash
From McArthur Park Island we drove over to the local grocery and hardware store stopping for lunch before driving over to a truck wash to give Bubbles a much-needed bath. A self-truck wash is exactly the same as a self-car wash but on a much bigger scale. Since Bubbles color is champagne pearl (or tan for the rest of us that don’t know exactly what color that is) we had to look closely to see if Bubbles was in fact dirty. The last time we had washed her was in Anchorage, weeks prior and over 2000 miles away. It was time. Normally when we go to a carwash, we have to make sure that Bubbles has enough clearance to fit but that was not something that we had to worry about here. We went into the office; gave a credit card and we were off. We sprayed, soaped, scrubbed and sprayed again and poof…the dirt was gone, and Bubbles was clean once again.
Kamloops City Beach
From the carwash we drove into downtown Kamloops, found parking and started walking around. We headed first over to the main city park, Riverside Park. Kamloops is located where the north & south Thompson Rivers meet. The park was alive with activity. People were hanging out in the shade under trees and strolling along the paths in the park. Kids were also splashing around in the parks splash pad. Most people however were at the parks beach. As it was a warm day, we headed over there too. We walked down to the water, took our shoes off and waded in a foot or so. The water felt really nice in the heat of the day. We stood there for a bit, taking in the scene and really enjoying ourselves. We really felt like locals.
Downtown Kamloops & our favorite new Mexican-Irish eatery
Once we were done soaking our feet, we put our shoes back on and headed back into town. We wandered around finding a bookstore and picking up a few new books to read. We were then getting a bit hungry, so we stopped by Carlos O’Bryan’s Pub. It was an interesting place, a mix of Mexican and Irish. We got a plate of their pachos; waffles fries with cheese, green onions with a side sauce called emerald isle (this tasted like ranch mixed with honey mustard). We washed it down with a Guinness and thought it was a great stop. From the restaurant we headed back to the campground to rest and relax the rest of the night.
All in all, we loved our time in Kamloops and the surrounding area. The town itself was booming with lots of construction projects going on. We could see why; people want to be there. It’s a unique town and a unique place in Canada.
Next up…We visit British Columbia’s most famous ski town – Whistler!
