White Lake-Okanagan Falls

21.24 km - about 0 hours 31 min

Take Highway 97 north from Oliver and turn west on Seacrest Hill Road. Continue through farm and rangeland to the hamlet of Willowbrook for a look at the nature-themed art of John Salsnek in his Paw Prints Studio & Gallery, then turn north onto White Lake Road and head through the antelope brush scrubland and ponderosa pine parkland for an experience that is out of this world.

12.60 km - about 0 hours 20 min

The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory hosts an ultra-high-tech array of radio telescopes tuned to capture the sounds of the universe. The largest such observatory in Canada, this site is on the cutting edge of scientific research. Take the self-guided tour at the visitor centre on weekdays year round. Guided tours are available on weekends during the summer. Completely boggled, follow White Lake Road to Highway 97 and turn south.

6.41 km - about 0 hours 7 min

Okanagan Falls, once home of stockyards where cattle were collected for shipment, is unusual for the number of buildings that were moved there. Fourteen of the homes in town were trucked from the Copper Mountain mine site in the 1950s while Bassett House, now part of the town's museum complex, was a 1906 catalogue mail order. Manufactured in Winnipeg, the pieces were transported by rail, sternwheeler and horse cart before being assembled in OK Falls.

Antique and collectibles buffs head for the shops on Highway 97 or visit on weekends when the Okanagan Falls Flea Market is in full swing. Wine lovers detour to wineries on the Corkscrew Drive circuit. And everybody can do what locals do and stop for ice cream at Tickleberry's. Continue south to Vaseux Lake Provincial Park.

15.17 km - about 0 hours 14 min

Once at Vaseux Lake Provincial Park, take the boardwalk to the bird blind and tower in the wetlands. Keep an eye out for bighorn sheep on the surrounding cliffs. The final landmark on the return to Oliver is 250m/820ft McIntyre Bluff, which marks the farthest extremity of the Great Basin Desert and signals the transition to the antelope brush shrub-steppe ecosystem of the South Okanagan. First Nations pictographs are also found in this area.