After several months of travel restrictions, self-isolation and the uncertainties of a pandemic, Alberta and neighboring provinces started to ease coronavirus restrictions and reopen the economy. With flying not a feasible option at this time but a need to go somewhere, we decided to take a road trip to Kelowna, British Columbia. The drive from Edmonton was a bit of a trek, about 10 hours, however with the various stops we made along the way through Calgary, Lake Louise, and Revelstoke, it was the ultimate road trip!
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Note: Radwin and I assessed our risk to cross-provincial travel as low. We stocked up on antibacterial wipes, hand sanitizing gel and face masks prior to our trip. We followed social distancing rules and mask mandates, where applicable.
Moraine Lake
Moraine Lake is a glacially-fed lake in the heart of Banff National Park. This lake is surrounded by the Valley of the Ten Peaks, and at an elevation of 1,885 meters, it is stunning! There is only one road to the lake, a narrow winding road from Lake Louise Village that is only open mid-May to mid-October. The road is closed during the winter season because it passes a hazardous avalanche path.
We were hoping to hike one of their many trails but it was raining terribly when we arrived so we made do with a short walk along the shore and enjoyed the incredible view.
Travel Tip #1: The parking lot by the lake is small and fills up quickly. Parks Canada wardens put up barricades to block off the access to Moraine Lake Road when the parking lot is full. If you want to drive your car, go very early in the morning or later in the evening. Otherwise, you will have to take the Roam Bus or the Parks Canada Shuttles.
Lake Louise
Our first overnight stop was Lake Louise, which is famous for its beautiful turquoise water, breathtaking mountain peaks and the iconic hotel, Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. The turquoise colour of the water comes from rock flour carried into the lake by melt-water from the glaciers that overlook the lake.
I am a bit embarrassed to admit that we’ve never taken the kids to Lake Louise before while Radwin and I have visited a number of times over the past several years. The kids were mesmerized by the beautiful lake and the impressive castle as we walked around the shore and snapped a bunch of photos.
Revelstoke
Our next step was the Giant Cedars Boardwalk Trail in Mount Revelstoke National Park. The parking lot has washrooms and picnic tables so this makes a great stop to stretch out your legs and have lunch. The boardwalk is a short, 500 meter loop through a beautiful, stunning forest of hundreds-of-years-old giant cedar trees. Fair warning, mosquitoes and other bugs are plentiful so you may want to use mosquito repellent before entering the forest.
We then headed to Revelstoke Mountain Resort for lunch and to ride The Pipe Mountain Coaster. The Revelstoke Mountain Resort is a ski resort on Mount Mackenzie and known for the longest vertical descent of any ski resort in North America! In the summer, the resort becomes an adventure playground with a variety of outdoor activities such as The Pipe Mountain Coaster (what we came for!), Aerial Adventure Park, disc golf course, ax throwing, mountain biking and hiking trails, paragliding and more.
The mountain coaster is an exhilarating ride, 1.4km of twists and turns across ski runs, between glades, over hills and through a tunnel. You control your own speed with the opportunity to travel up to 42km per hour! They take pictures of you as you fly around that first corner at the top and those are available for purchase, in print or digital format, at the end of your ride.
If you are not a fan of thrill rides and prefer to just sit back and relax, take the Revelation Gondola up to 5,000 feet for a stunning view of the Columbia River and two towering mountain ranges while enjoying coffee or tea and a bite to eat at a mountain-top burger joint.
Vernon
To break up another long day of driving, we stayed for a night at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Vernon. This pre-arrangement worked out perfectly as we were held up by traffic for over an hour in Salmon Arm. Vernon is located in the North Okanagan Valley region of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, an hour’s drive from Kelowna.
Kelowna
We spent four nights at the Royal Anne Hotel, a boutique property in the heart of downtown Kelowna. The location allowed us to leave our car in the hotel’s underground parking and explore the nearby shops, restaurants and attractions on foot. It also put us two blocks away from the Kelowna Downtown Marina and City Park, the most popular beach in Kelowna and home to the Ogopogo statue. According to Canadian folklore, the Ogopogo is a lake monster said to reside in Okanagan Lake.
We were most excited for Kangaroo Creek Farm, a family run and own business near the Kelowna International Airport. Imagine our surprise when we learnt that kangaroos and wallabies live in Canada! This farm is a forever home for rescue kangaroos and other animals including parrots, pot-bellied pigs, capybaras, sugar gliders, a porcupine and an emu. The original animals were rescues from New Zealand and the other kangaroos and wallabies came from other North America breeders.
The animals were very laid back, tame and friendly. You can literally go right up to the kangaroos and pet them—talk about a cool and unique experience! The kids had such a great time visiting and petting all of them including the snake! If you time your visit right, you could even hold a baby joey, which sadly wasn’t on the program the day we visited.
Scandia Golf and Games was all sorts of fun for all of us, mom and dad included. This family fun center has it all—outdoor mini golf, indoor jungle mini golf, go-karts, batting cages, shooting gallery and arcade games! We were the first customers to arrive on Canada Day so we had the entire jungle golf course to ourselves. It took over an hour to finish all 18-holes as some of them were a little tricky.
Once the sun came out, we went outside for go-karts. The Scandia Raceway is one of the best I’ve seen, 1,000 linear feet track with two separate over passes. Jordan and Evelyn were cheering with delight the whole time and honestly thought we were playing real-life action Mario Kart! There were also a large selection and variety of arcade games. You seem to get a lot of value out of the tokens but beware, some of the games don’t give tickets even though they should.
Travel Tip #3: Bring your own helmet – any type of helmet, i.e. motorcycle, bicycle, hockey, ski, etc. Due to covid, if you require the use of their helmets, you must wear the disposable shower cap provided.
We promised the kids we would take them cherry picking but alas, we arrived two weeks ahead of the u-picking season. We ended up purchasing a bag of pre-picked cherries at Sun City Cherries to the kids’ disappointment and some really yummy locally made gelato.
The Okanagan Valley is famous for its wineries and fruit orchards. With over 40 wineries in Kelowna, it was hard to choose which one to visit. Well, I chose Summerhill Pyramid Winery, international award winning and Canada's largest organic winery and premier producer of sparkling wine. The winery offers tours, tastings, an organic bistro, and stunning views. Wine tastings are available daily on a drop-in basis at $10 per person, which is waived with purchase. Summerhill is family friendly so children are welcome in their tasting room. Jordan and Evelyn got a kick out of “tasting” apple juice from champagne glasses.
Our personal recommendations: the 2017 Summerhill Riesling and 2017 Pinot Blanc Ice Wine!
We were driving around aimlessly on our last day in Kelowna and stumbled upon Don-O-Ray Farm Adventure, a petting zoo and maze. It is not every day that you find yourself in the actual pens feeding and petting a pony, goats, ducks, silkie chickens, and bunnies.
Sicamous
We stopped in at D Dutchmen Dairy on our drive home for a cool, sweet treat. D Dutchmen Diary is an old-fashioned dairy store and farm selling milk, cheese and ice cream. All of their artisan ice cream is produced on location and they carry over 40 different flavours daily. The ice cream was absolutely delicious! We took ours around the back to eat them next to the dairy cows at the family owned Dewitt Holstein Dairy Farm.
There were a number of other awesome activities I had researched but didn’t have the time to squeeze into our one-week vacay so I will keep them in my back pocket for our next visit to Kelowna.
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