Explore Canada’s desert, wineries in all seasons: Osoyoos itinerary

It’s finally happening! Intrepid friends and family are making plans to visit us in Osoyoos where we’re spending our second winter. Covid-permitting, of course. That got us thinking – what would we recommend guests see and do in our adopted British Columbia town?

Wineries are a top draw, as well as the desert environment surrounding this southern Okanagan Valley town, just one kilometre north of the U.S. border. Much depends on the season and how much time you have. So, we’ve ranked our recommendations in descending order: if you have just one day, then choose two or three items from the top of the list. As your time gets longer, proceed down the list.

Here are our top 10 things to do that are open year-round, followed by our top 7 seasonal activities, where to eat and stay, how to get around, where to go from Osoyoos and some helpful links. (Sadly, the Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad that we visited last year closed permanently in September 2021.)

1. Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre

Land and people. The Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre invites you learn how the Osoyoos Indian Band, as Syilx people of the Okanagan nation, lived and continue to live on their semi-arid lands. Pronounced “See-ILKS” and “INK-ah-meep,” the centre is owned by the band and includes exhibits, movies and displays along hiking trails winding amongst the antelope brush, sage and Ponderosa pines. You’ll also learn about Anthony Walsh – a white teacher who encouraged his students at the Inkameep Day School to express their Syilx culture through art, at a time when other Indigenous students were forced to go to residential schools. In these days of truth and reconciliation, it’s important to educate ourselves to understand Indigenous points of view wherever we travel.

2. Wineries

Visit a winery or two or 10. We’ve tasted the results at many in this area – with the highest density of wineries in Canada – and honed our understanding of ‘terroir.’ Our favourites that are open year-round include: Nk’Mip, Burrowing Owl, Adega on 45^th, District Wine Village (16 artisan producers – including wineries, breweries, and distilleries), Road 13, Tinhorn Creek, Silver Sage, and Phantom Creek. If you’re not a wine afficionado, you may find your libation of choice at a microbrewery, cidery or Tumbleweed Spirits Distillery.

3. Town and waterfront

Get a feel for this desert town. Park on Main Street, explore the downtown shops, and then walk or cycle along the waterfront, especially along the Pioneer Walkway and through Gyro Park past several public beaches. Rent bikes from Double O Bike Shop on Main Street. (My story about cycling in a desert includes our favourite cycling routes, which can all be walked.) Watch for wildlife, such as bald eagles cruising the waterfront, swans near the bridge, and silly quails everywhere. Stop at the many murals and heritage interpretive signs to learn how this town came to be. Admire cacti in the gardens.

4. Anarchist Mountain lookouts

Drive east along Hwy #3 (Main Street through town) and wind your way up Anarchist Mountain to two lookouts, giving you a literal overview of the lakeside desert town. You’ll get gorgeous panoramic views of Osoyoos and its lake, north to Oliver and south to Washington State. Look due west to the pointy mountains you’ll encounter if heading to Vancouver. After admiring the scenery from the first lookout, head further up the mountain; you can’t make a left turn into the second lookout, so keep going, turn around when you can, and head back down to make a right turn into the second lookout at the Welcome to Osoyoos sign.

5. Fruit stands

Now, when I say ‘fruit stand,’ you might think of a roadside wagon piled with strawberries or corn on the cob, as commonly seen in eastern Ontario. However, ‘fruit stand’ in the Okanagan Valley means a full-fledged fruit and vegetable market, with garage doors along the front and huge square bins of produce to entice you in. Many start closing in November but enough stay open that you can get good apples, squash, and carrots through the winter. The soft fruits start to ripen towards the end of June – cherries first, followed by peaches the size of softballs and apricots in July, and pears and plums in August and September, with apple-picking going into October. (The wine-grape harvest is usually late September to early October.)

6. sẁiẁs Provincial Park (aka Haynes Point)

When the Osoyoos Lake level drops in winter (it’s controlled by a dam further south in the U.S.), a meandering sand bar extends almost across the lake from the tip of the peninsula that forms sẁiẁs Provincial Park. The Osoyoos Indian Band’s Okanagan ancestors used to cross the lake here (sẁiẁs is pronounced ‘SOY-use,’ hence the town’s name). Shell middens showed their ancestors lived on the peninsula for thousands of years before European fur traders and settlers arrived. Today, you can see a small fenced area that protects 1,224-year-old ancestral remains, explore the marsh area and self-guided interpretive trails, or wander along the peninsula road. The park offers free entry in the off season and a very popular camping option in summer.   

7. Okanagan Art Gallery

The Okanagan Art Gallery features paintings from artists all over the valley. Each artist takes turns volunteering in the gallery, so you’re always assured an interesting chat about painting styles, techniques, subject matter, or local issues from someone who knows the area.

8. Art Gallery Osoyoos

Pop into the Art Gallery Osoyoos – it’s small, so doesn’t take long – to view its rotating themed displays. It’s really more gift shop than art gallery, since everything is for sale: paintings, photographs, pottery, glasswork, quilts, weavings and more.

9. Osoyoos Museum

The Osoyoos & District Museum and Archives used to be housed in an old curling rink near the beach and finally re-opened – after taking a year to move – in November 2021 in a handsome building on Main Street. Learn about the town’s history, including settlement by fur traders, cattle ranching, gold mining, orchards, and wineries. Various heritage interpretive signs, murals, and giant photos around town also allow you to appreciate how the place came to be. (Note: the museum’s website doesn’t work.)

10. Home Hardware

Seriously. Not usually a tourist destination but this is the best Home Hardware we’ve ever been in – a combination of hardware, tools, garden centre, kitchen ware, dips and spreads, clothing, toys and games, baby boutique, Christmas and other seasonal decorations, free gift-wrapping, sports equipment, pet toys and accoutrements, the most extensive selection of tea towels I’ve ever seen, Osoyoos greeting cards, post cards and other souvenirs, and even a public washroom. Other places that offer good souvenir shopping are the Osoyoos Visitor Centre, Art Gallery Osoyoos, Nk’Mip Cultural Desert Centre gift shop, Nk’Mip Cellars winery gift shop, and the Nk’Mip Petro-Canada gas station store (yes, really!)

Our top 7 seasonal options:

Generally mild winters mean cycling and hiking are year-round activities, except for a few really cold weeks mid-winter. Activities involving water or snow are obviously seasonal. Summers tend to be very hot, with temperatures in the high 30s Celsius, so be sure to include beach time.

1. Understand and appreciate the unique desert ecosystem by visiting the Osoyoos Desert Centre. Displays in the building highlight the animals – burrowing owls, badgers, owls, rattlesnakes and quails – that live here, a demonstration garden names the native plants, and a 1.5-kilometre boardwalk loops through the desert terrain amongst the antelope brush, sage and rabbit brush.
2. Swim in the warmest freshwater lake in Canada – averaging 24°C in July and August. Osoyoos Lake is lined with public access beaches throughout town.  
3. Rent a boat, kayak, SUP or canoe and explore the lake. Be careful not to stray across the border into the United States!
4. A 10-kilometre drive west on Hwy #3 takes you to Spotted Lake – a sacred healing site known as Kliluk to the Osoyoos Indian Band. As water evaporates under the hot summer sun, minerals such as calcium, sodium sulphate and magnesium sulphate concentrate into shifting spots of blue, green and yellow. Fascinating! Since it’s a sacred site, visitors are asked to stay at the viewpoint.
5. For those with small children, Rattlesnake Canyon amusement park is a must. While away a sunny afternoon on go karts, bumper boats, mini-golf, rock-climbing wall, whirling swings and more. The Windmill Ice Cream Parlour will extract more money from your wallet but also refresh hot bodies.
6. We’re not golfers but neighbours say the golf courses are good, including the Osoyoos Golf Club and Sonora Dunes Golf Course right in town.  
7. Osoyoos itself doesn’t get much snow, but simply drive up into the mountains to go snowshoeing, downhill skiing or cross-country skiing. Mount Baldy and Apex Mountain Resort are the closest.  

Where to eat:

We’ve tried the following places and recommend them.

• The Bear, The Fish, The Root, & The Berry: offers Indigenous-inspired food from the four food chiefs
• Miradoro restaurant at Tinhorn Creek Winery: fabulous food and views over the valley
• Pointe 49 Kitchen & Bar at Walnut Beach Resort: half-price appetizers during weekend happy hour
• Indian Flame on Main: great food at reasonable prices
• JoJo’s Café: with live music when Covid permits
• Junction 3 Coffee House: two heated bubbles let you lap your latte outside in the winter
• North Basin Brewing Co.: drinks and snacks only but you can BYOF (bring your own food)
• Sugar Quail Bakeshop: fresh bread and sweets daily
• Sage Pub: recommended for pizza and wings
• Fruit stands: we like the Osoyoos Fruit Basket. Try the samosas at any fruit stand.
• Sofia’s Mexican Food Truck: open in the warmer months
• Stock up for a picnic at one of the two bigger grocery stores: AG Foods or Buy-Low Foods
• Recommended places we still must try: La Marqueza for Mexican food, Owl Pub, Scoopsies Treat Shop

Where to stay:

Osoyoos has many resorts, hotels, motels, RV parks and campgrounds. Reserve early at the popular sẁiẁs (Haynes Point) Provincial Park and Nk’Mip RV Park & Campground. Resorts (such as Casa Del Mila Oro, Walnut Beach, Spirit Ridge, Watermark) offer townhouses and apartments to rent. Chain hotels include Holiday Inn, Best Western, Super 8, and Coast. Dozens of smaller hotels and motels (I’ve heard that Sandy Beach is good) accommodate the thousands who arrive for summer beach time.  

How to get around:

Driving is the easiest and fastest way to get around, especially if you want to visit any wineries outside town. Many visitors rent a car at the Kelowna Airport. For those who favour local transportation, there is bus service from Kelowna to Penticton to Osoyoos, although we have not tried it. Osoyoos is too small for town buses or Uber but it does have taxis. You can easily reach all our recommended sights by bicycle. There’s an electric car charging station with 7 Tesla chargers and 2 FLO chargers.

Public washrooms in parks are open May 1 to Oct. 15, except for the one in Goodman Park, which is open year-round.

Where to go from Osoyoos:

• Head north up the Okanagan Valley along Hwy #97, winding amongst the orchards and wineries of Oliver, Okanagan Falls, Penticton, Summerland, Peachland and Kelowna.
• Take Hwy #3 east up the switchbacks of Anarchist Mountain to the Boundary region that includes Rock Creek, Midway, Greenwood and Christina Lake all the way to Castlegar in the Kootenays. Lots of gold mining history and ghost towns along that route.
• Drive west along Hwy #3 through the Similkameen Valley (more wineries) to Hope, and then on to Vancouver.

Helpful resources:

The Osoyoos Visitor Centre and its Destination Osoyoos website offers lots of helpful information. In particular, visit the “What’s Open” page to see which places are actually open during these strange Covid times. In the centre itself, pick up paper pamphlets, booklets, maps and the like, plus a range of quality souvenirs.

The Town of Osoyoos has a helpful map of public walkways, bike paths, parks, and beaches, as well as a list of local attractions.

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We’ve explored Osoyoos for the winters of 2020-21 and 2021-22. You can always find out where we are by visiting our ‘Where’s Kathryn?’ page.