On our second full day in Kelowna, we awoke in anticipation of a hot sunny day-- wine tours! Lake time! Hours spent lazily sunning ourselves! WHAT COULD BE BETTER?
Alas, it was not meant to be. We awoke to a thick coating of smoke covering the Okanagan Valley. The smoke hung over Kelowna for the rest of our trip.
Beautiful view of Lake Okanagan.
Regardless, we did make the best of the time we had. On Sunday morning we walked down to the lake from the rental cabin, which turned out to be quite a steep hike. We hoped that the smoke would clear up a bit, but it never really did. So we headed out for a self-guided tour of several wineries, including Mission Hill, the Hatch, Quails' Gate and Volcanic Hills. We finished our day off with dinner at Summerhill Pyramid, before dropping Ashley off at the airport.
On our third and final day in Kelowna, Steve, Jeff, Tom and I headed into Fintry Provincial Park for a short hike up a three-tiered waterfall. We packed lunch with us-- Jeff actually hauled a cooler ladened with sandwich fixings, snacks and beverages up the huge set of steep stairs, with the intention of us having a picnic at the top
Jeff and Steve in a smokey Fintry Park.
Of course, when we got to the top, there wasn't really anywhere to eat. Everything was out in the scorching sun (a sign that the smoke had cleared a bit-- we could actually see patches of blue sky every once in a while), so Jeff hauled everything back down again.
Fintry Provincial Park waterfall.
Staircase up to Waterfall is visible at the top.
Steve and I taking in the waterfall below.
At the base of the waterfall we followed a pathway into some tree cover, and found ourselves a nice spot by the creek to eat our lunch. We were only minorly harassed by wasps, and while investigating some nearby trees infected with tent caterpillars, we found this hairy caterpillar. I don't think this guy is a tent caterpillar-- he just happened to be near a nest.
Hairy caterpillar.
We spent a couple hours relaxing by the lake, and then Jeff made us some delicious pork souvlaki for dinner. After dinner we hit the pool, and then got a head start on packing up.
Tom and I headed out early the next morning to finish the last leg of our journey out to Tofino on Vancouver Island. Stay tuned!
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