Same day, second post

On Wednesday, we left the national parks and headed southward towards the wine and produce country, the Okanagan region. This region is aptly named after a 90 mile lake running N S through the area - click on this link . Before we left, we did do 2 more short hikes.  One was the Cedar Trail, full of ancient cedars, some 500 years old.  They are massive.  (BTW, see, we still had on jeans, tennis shoes, and sweat jackets - still in the high altitudes!)

 

The second hike was along the Skunk Cabbage Trail.  This is a marshy area with lots of skunk cabbage plants, found only in British Columbia.  These rascals have giant leaves, are as tall as 4 feet and they do smell like cabbage!

 

The area also has little streams running all through it, supporting tall marsh grasses.

 

You know what lives in tall marsh grasses?   BIG tadpoles!

 

We had to stop at Dutchmen Dairy en route to Kelowna.  Know for their wonderful ice cream, and the reputation is well deserved! Luke says their ice cream is so rich, it makes the Homestead Creamery (very good ice cream place near home) ice cream taste like frozen yogurt.

The road to Kelowna slowly changes from high mountains to a lake region, full of wineries and fruits such as cherries.  Here is a link to the town of Kelowna – interesting, as it is the 22nd largest town in Canada.  Click here to link to it.  It has a long, five lane, floating highway bridge across Lake Okanagan between Kelowna and West Kelowna!

 

Hot again today!  We spent the morning at "BC's most visited" winery, Summerhill Pyramid Winery.  Here is a link.  It's a certified organic winery, including all of their processing and labeling.  A beautiful setting, of course....

Tomorrow we hope to visit one for their winery tour.

 We are in our new "campground" for the next 2 days. Not a real campground, but a spare parking lot of a motel. We have full hookup's, especially important being the electricity so we can offset the 103 degree day!!!!  Can't believe it got so hot!  Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler.  The sun has set now and a breeze has come up, so we have our windows open and the fan running.  A nice combination.