| KVR
- Kettle Valley Rail Trail is
an abandoned railway bed transformed into a recreation trail popular
for exploring canyons, meadows, forests, lakes and rivers from
Midway to Hope, BC, Canada. The KVR plays a big part in the British
Columbia portion of the TCT (Trans Canada Trail).
The trail is over 600 kilometres in length and
is a popular route for hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, horseback
riding and dirt biking in the summer months. During the winter,
some of the sections of the trail become cross country ski, snowmobile
and snowshoe routes.
The Kettle Valley Railway was established in
1914 as a transportation route for goods and people from town
to town throughout southern British Columbia, Canada. The transportation
route was a difficult project to complete because of the harsh
wilderness conditions forging through thick forests, blasting
rocks and building wooden trestles connecting hillsides.
The trail has many access points along the route
thus creating, both, many different day trips and multi day trips.
Along the recreation KVR Trail are accommodations and various
designated locations for camping. Some campgrounds are wilderness
campsites while others are provincial campgrounds.
The Okanagan corridor section of the KVR between
Midway (near Rock
Creek) and Kelowna is a route filled with wooden trestles,
mountain tunnels, Okanagan Valley scenery and historic sites like
"rock ovens" and old foundations of railway stations.
The popular hiking and mountain biking route
is considered an easy-going route with some hill climbing sections.
Most of the route explores the backcountry hills from an elevation
of 1100 to 4000 feet above sea level. The route is situated east
of the Okanagan Valley communities.
There are two sections of the Okanagan Valley
corridor of the KVR that seem to make the best day trips and get
allot of attention. One is the 18 railway trestles in Myra
Bellevue Canyon. And two being the scenery and downhill ride
from Chute Lake to Penticton.
South Access: Midway is located
east of Osoyoos near Rock
Creek on Highway #3. The southern access point of the Kettle
Valley Rail Trail is located near the Midway Museum. The trailhead
is well marked. Trail updates and parking is available.
Middle Access: In Naramata,
near Penticton, the trailhead
access is located at the junction of Naramata Road, Arawawana
Road and Smethhurst Road.
North Access: Near Kelowna,
the most popular access point to the KVR is in the Myra
Bellevue Provincial Park.
|
KVR
Okanagan
Valley 
