Hiking Ok Falls to Vaseaux Lake

I’ve been trying to work out a hiking trail from Penticton to Osoyoos, with no luck so far … but I’ve had some good hikes. This route from the Provincial Campground at Okanagan Falls to the second lagoon south of Vaseaux lake takes four hours at a good steady walk for the round trip. A shorter walk is straight down the dyke to Vaseaux Lake.

Even in early March the river is full of lots of waterfowl: mallards, geese, swans and even a few loons. Others appeared to be bufflehead or some type of Goldeneye. I guess there must be some fish if the loons are there.

To start my hike I drove down the Green Lake Road just west of the bridge at OK Falls and took the second road to the left after the provincial campground. It is just a short distance to the parking lot and the dyke gate. Be sure to leave the private driveway clear.

There is a walkway over the channel here, but unfortunately it is blocked, as are the other ones down river, making them difficult to access for wheelchairs. It would be possible however to negotiate though and travel down the dyke.

About 340 metres along is the second walkway. This would make for a short circuit, crossing here and heading back up the other side. The third one is 550 metres further along; crossing here would make for a nice short walk, except that the other side is near the sewage treatment plant. The fourth and final one is not quite at a kilometre (967 metres). Just north of this last walkway there are a few boulders in the river, which might offer good resting spots for some nice trout. Might be worth checking out later in the season.

It’s just 210 metres to where the KVR used to cross the river, but between the walkway and this point there is a gate and I’m not too sure if a wheelchair would make it around through the rocks. At this point you can either keep to the dyke or veer to the right onto the old KVR right of way.

Let’s first look at the dyke track, which leads down to the head of Vaseaux Lake, a distance of about 2.35 kilometres. Unfortunately, the walkthrough will not accommodate a wheelchair. You leave behind the nearby hill and Oregon grape patches and have the river on one hand and swampy land on the other, with lots of bulrushes and marsh grasses. Right along the dike I also ran across some grass at least eight feet tall! Yes, I even found another likely looking blackberry patch. Might be an interesting day spent in the right season feasting on these and plying the water for some trout or bass.

The round trip for this hike is about 8.83 kilometres. If you want, you can take the old rail bed to where it used to cross at the south end of Vaseaux Lake. It is about a 13 km round trip from where it crosses the dyke. You could of course take the Green Lake Road to this point or the next access point.

The first 2.4 km on is mainly close to the bank under the Green Mountain Road and is fairly rough and overgrown. If you are traveling with a wheelchair companion you might be wiser to take the next access road down to the railway bed.

From this last access point to the KVR trail it is 4.3 km to where the bridge was removed at the head of the lake. Before reaching the lake there is swampy land on the left and some ranches on the right. It seems to me the southern end of the lake would be a great place for a wilderness camp if we were able to turn this into a hiking trail for tourists and were able to connect Penticton with the border.

This is lovely country around here with bunch grass and ponderosa pine. I love the absence of knap weed along this section. Just a little to the right of the end of the line there is a small old road that takes one around the first lagoon below Vaseaux Lake to the second lagoon, a distance of nearly a kilometre.

I would dearly like to see this all wheelchair accessible, with a few piers for fishing access for those in wheelchairs.

Enjoy your hiking and remember, what you carry in --- carry out!

Comments and suggestions always welcome