Friday, November 21, 2008

Osoyoos, BC...Too Pretty to Pass Up!

We left Nelson this morning with a plan to head to Kelowna. The forecast was calling for rain/snow, but we were fortunate and didn't see either.

As we got closer to Grand Forks, the topography really changed and the mountains turned to hills with few trees.


It looks really dry...

At the top of one of the passes, we saw this beautiful view of a town below...

It was Osoyoos, a town that boasts Canada's lowest annual precipation, highest annual temperature and warmest fresh water lake. It is actually the northern tip of the Sonoran Desert which extends from Mexico to Canada. It is biologically classified as a desert because of the unique flora and fauna that are here.

We started heading down to the town through a series of switchbacks...

At some points in the descent, the speed limit is 20 km and we could see why. Here is one of the switchbacks. Jim was wishing he had the 350Z...I was glad he didn't!

Downtown Osoyoos...


There are still flowers everywhere as they haven't had a frost yet. We started to leave the town and then thought "This is really pretty. Why not stay here tonight?"

There was a restaurant in the Places to Eat in Canada book called Campomarina. The owner was very talkative and suggested we go to the Burrowing Owl (one of the many wineries in the area) for lunch tomorrow. Our waitress works there on Fridays and she mentioned a special they have on now to stay overnight and have dinner, so we may check that out tomorrow or we may head on to Kelowna. Either way, Osoyoos is a gem!

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