Okanagan Falls | |
|---|---|
 Rolling hills of Okanagan Falls with Peach Cliff in the distance | |
| Nickname: OK Falls | |
  Okanagan Falls Location of Okanagan Falls in British Columbia | |
| Coordinates: 49°21′00″N119°34′00″W / 49.35000°N 119.56667°W Coordinates: 49°21′00″N119°34′00″W / 49.35000°N 119.56667°W | |
| Country |  Canada |
| Province |  British Columbia |
| Area code(s) | 250, 778 |
Okanagan Falls (also known as OK Falls) is a community located on the south end of Skaha Lake in British Columbia. [1] [2]
The community was founded in 1893 as Dogtown. The current name derives from a small set of the falls that used to lie on the Okanagan River at the outlet of Skaha Lake. The falls have since been submerged beneath the lake due to the construction of a dam on the river. [3] [4]
In 2012, Okanagan Falls expressed interest in incorporating as a municipality, [5] and in December 2020 the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen approved a study on incorporating the community as a municipality. [6]
Nestled at the head of a giant spillway formed as the discharge of Glacial Lake Penticton was constrained between Mount McLellan to the west and Peach Cliff to the east. Okanagan Falls has a diverse assemblage of geological attractions. [7]
Peach Cliff is a dominant landmark to the east of Okanagan Falls. It consists of trachyte of Eocene age. Peach Cliff is home to herds of mule deer and a sizeable herd of California bighorn sheep. Perched high on a spur of Peach Cliff is Balancing Rock, a large glacial erratic supported by a couple of granitic cobbles. [8]
Southwest of Okanagan Falls, are the ragged cliffs of Indian Head, one of the most unusual rock formations in the Okanagan. Consisting of dark volcanic rocks overlying a lighter conglomerate. This formation contains spectacular megabreccia, volcanic and plutonic rocks up to 70 m (230 ft) across and metamorphic rocks of up to 500 m (1,600 ft) across. [9]
South of Okanagan Falls lies meromictic Mahoney Lake, home to spectacular blooms of purple sulphur bacteria. This purple is contrasted by nearby Green Lake, which is coloured by the precipitation of calcium carbonates in the water column. [10]
The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory is a research facility founded in 1960 and located southwest of Okanagan Falls and Penticton.
The site houses three instruments – an interferometric radio telescope, a 26 m (85 ft) single-dish antenna, and a solar flux monitor – and supports engineering laboratories. The DRAO is operated by the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics of the National Research Council of the Canadian government.
The observatory was named an IEEE Milestone for first radio astronomical observations using VLBI. There is a self-guided tour available at the facility during daylight hours.
Christie Memorial Provincial Park is located on the south shoreline of Skaha Lake. Okanagan Falls Provincial Park is also nearby.
Penticton is a city in the Okanagan Valley of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, situated between Okanagan and Skaha lakes. In the 2016 Canadian Census, its population was 33,761, while its census agglomeration population was 43,432.
Okanagan Lake is a lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. The lake is 135 km (84 mi) long, between 4 and 5 km wide, and has a surface area of 348 km2.
The Okanagan, also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is part of the Okanagan Country, extending into the United States as Okanogan County in north-central Washington. According to the 2016 Canadian census, the region's population is 362,258. The largest populated cities are Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, and West Kelowna.
The Okanogan River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 115 mi (185 km) long, in southern British Columbia and north central Washington. It drains a scenic plateau region called the Okanagan Country east of the Cascade Range and north and west of the Columbia, and also the Okanagan region of British Columbia. The Canadian portion of the river has been channelized since the mid-1950s.
Kaleden is an unincorporated community about midway along the western shore of Skaha Lake in the Okanagan region of south central British Columbia. Adjacent to BC Highway 97, the locality is by road about 13 kilometres (8 mi) south of Penticton.
Skaha Lake is a freshwater lake, through which the Okanagan River flows, in the Okanagan region of south central British Columbia. Along the shoreline are Penticton (north), Kaleden (west), and Okanagan Falls (south).
Okanagan Falls Provincial Park, now officially named sx̌ʷəx̌ʷnitkʷ Provincial Park, is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located within the traditional territory of the Osoyoos Indian Band. Since time immemorial, the Osoyoos Indian Band's Okanagan ancestors have inhabited and cared for the lands and waters in their traditional territory. The park is also located within the town of Okanagan Falls, protecting the area around the waterfall of the same name, which lies below the outlet of Skaha Lake in the course of the Okanagan River.
Mount Boucherie is a mountain located in West Kelowna on the west shore of Okanagan Lake, British Columbia, Canada, opposite the city of Kelowna. It is the remnants of a former stratovolcano created nearly 60 million years ago. Between four and six different glacial periods over the past 50 million years have eroded the volcano to produce Mount Boucherie. Though it now only rises 417 metres above the nearby lake level, it is estimated to once have had an elevation of 2,000 m (6,562 ft) or more.
Mount Price is a small stratovolcano in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Pacific Ranges in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It has an elevation of 2,049 metres and rises above the surrounding landscape on the western side of Garibaldi Lake in New Westminster Land District. The mountain contains a number of subfeatures, including Clinker Peak on its western flank, which was the source of two thick lava flows between 15,000 and 8,000 years ago that ponded against glacial ice. These lava flows are structurally unstable, having produced large landslides as recently as the 1850s. A large provincial park surrounds Mount Price and other volcanoes in its vicinity. It lies within an ecological region that surrounds much of the Pacific Ranges.
The Okanagan Highland is an elevated hilly plateau area in British Columbia, Canada, and the U.S. state of Washington. Rounded mountains with elevations up to 8,000 ft (2,400 m) above sea level and deep, narrow valleys are characteristic of the region.
The Thompson Plateau forms the southern portion of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada, lying to the west of Okanagan Lake, south of the Thompson River and east of the Fraser River. At its most southern point the plateau is squeezed by the mountainous terrain of the Cascade Range abutting closer to the Okanagan Valley. Its southwestern edge abuts the Canadian Cascades portion of that extensive range, more or less following the line of the Similkameen River, its tributary the Tulameen River, and a series of passes from the area of Tulameen, British Columbia to the confluence of the Thompson River with the Nicoamen River, a few kilometres (miles) east of Lytton, British Columbia, which is in the Fraser Canyon. Its northeastern edge runs approximately from the city of Vernon, British Columbia through the valley of Monte Creek to the junction of the same name just east of the city of Kamloops. Northeast of that line is the Shuswap Highland.
The Syilx people, also known as the Okanagan, Okanogan or Okinagan people, are a First Nations and Native American people whose traditional territory spans the Canada–US boundary in Washington state and British Columbia in the Okanagan Country region. They are part of the Interior Salish ethnological and linguistic grouping. The Syilx are closely related to the Spokan, Sinixt, Nez Perce, Pend Oreille, Secwepemc and Nlaka'pamux peoples of the same Northwest Plateau region.
Vaseux Lake is a shallow freshwater lake located along the course of the Okanagan River in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada.
The Okanagan Desert is the common name for a semi-arid shrubland located in the southern region of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and Washington. It is centred around the city of Osoyoos and is the only semi-arid shrubland in Canada. Part of this ecosystem is referred to as the Nk'mip Desert by the Osoyoos Indian Band, though it is identical to the shrublands elsewhere in the region. To the northwest of this area lies an arid shrubland near Kamloops.
The Mount Cayley volcanic field (MCVF) is a remote volcanic zone on the South Coast of British Columbia, Canada, stretching 31 km (19 mi) from the Pemberton Icefield to the Squamish River. It forms a segment of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, the Canadian portion of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, which extends from Northern California to southwestern British Columbia. Most of the MCVF volcanoes were formed during periods of volcanism under sheets of glacial ice throughout the last glacial period. These subglacial eruptions formed steep, flat-topped volcanoes and subglacial lava domes, most of which have been entirely exposed by deglaciation. However, at least two volcanoes predate the last glacial period and both are highly eroded. The field gets its name from Mount Cayley, a volcanic peak located at the southern end of the Powder Mountain Icefield. This icefield covers much of the central portion of the volcanic field and is one of the several glacial fields in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains.
The Okanagan Valley wine region, located within the region of the same name in the British Columbia Interior, is Canada's second-largest wine producing area. Along with the nearby Similkameen Valley, the approximately 8,619 acres of vineyards planted in the Okanagan account for more than 80% of all wine produced in British Columbia, and are second in economic importance for wine production to the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario. Some 182 licensed wineries existed from south to north in the valley in 2018, with many situated along the 135 km (84 mi)-long Okanagan Lake and its tributaries and downstream lakes, including Skaha Lake, Vaseux Lake, and Osoyoos Lake. The Okanagan has diverse terrain that features many different microclimates and vineyard soil types, contributing characteristics which are part of an Okanagan terroir.
Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Skaha Bluffs lies within the asserted territory of the Okanagan Nation Alliance. World-class climbing opportunities are found at Skaha Bluffs, recreational climbing has been occurring in the area since the 1980s.
Mission Creek is a large creek in the Okanagan Region of British Columbia. Originally called N'wha-kwi-sen, it was later mapped as Rivière de l’Anse-au-Sable, the name Mission Creek was adopted in 1860 in honour of the Catholic Oblate Mission established by Father Pandosy and other settlers. The Creek rises in the Greystoke Mountain Range and runs west about 43 kilometres (27 mi) before emptying into Okanagan Lake south of Kelowna. Its watershed covers about 200,000 square kilometres . Mission Creek was designated a BC Heritage River by the province in 1996.
McIntyre Bluff (nʕaylintn) is a large ridge of rock, made of gneiss, located south of Vaseux Lake between Okanagan Falls and Oliver in British Columbia, Canada. The bluff rises prominently over the surrounding valley and is one of the most well known landmarks in the Okanagan.
Richard J. "Dick" Cannings is a Canadian biologist, author and politician. He was elected as the South Okanagan—West Kootenay Member of Parliament in the 2015 Canadian federal election for the New Democratic Party, and re-elected in 2019. As a member of the 42nd Canadian Parliament he sponsored three private member's bills: one to promote the use of wood in federal public works projects, one to add various lakes and rivers to Navigable Waters Protection Act, and another to a Minister of Environment to respond to a Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada report. Cannings was appointed the NDP Critic for Post-Secondary Education as well as the Deputy Critic for Natural Resources in the 42nd Canadian Parliament. He became the NDP Critic for Natural Resources in 2016 and served in that position until 2021. In October 2021 he became the NDP Critic for Emergency Preparedness and Critic for Small Business and Tourism, as well as Deputy Critic for Natural Resources and Deputy Critic for Innovation, Science and Industry. In December 2021 he was named an inaugural member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research.
Okanagan Falls travel guide from WikivoyageSubdivisions of British Columbia | |
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| Subdivisions | |
| Communities | |
| Metro areas and agglomerations | |
Municipalities and communities of Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada | ||
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| Cities |  | |
| Towns | ||
| Districts | ||
| Villages | ||
| Designated places | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Indian reserves | ||
| Ghost towns | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent region | |
