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SWAN LAKE AND OTER LAKE

24 km, all paved

This route highlights two rich lakes and the lush farmland of the north Okanagan Valley between Vernon and Armstrong.

START: 43rd Avenue at Highway 97, Vernon.

TRAVEL WEST ON 43rd Avenue and drive to the T-junction at Alexis Park Drive and Old Kamloops Road; turn right here and continue north. The route skirts wet meadows that are quickly being swallowed by gravel fill and big-box stores, but soon reaches the south end of Swan Lake.

Large, marshy lakes are rare in southern British Columbia, where the water always seems to be in a race to get to the Pacific. Swan Lake is one of those rare exceptions, a lake reminiscent of the wetlands of the prairies. Set in a landscape of grass and ringed by lush cattail and bulrush marshes, Swan Lake is alive with ducks, geese, grebes, and other birds that revel in rich waters. Even loons still nest in the quieter marshes around the north end, the only site in the valley bottom where they do so. Swans, on the other hand, are rare here—perhaps the lake was named after a migrant flock that once passed through. Most swans visiting the Okanagan Valley now are winter residents and, since Swan Lake is shallow enough to be frozen in the dead of winter, those birds shun it.

At the south end of the lake is a small, complex delta where BX Creek flows into the lake then drains out of it only 250 metres to the west. A few other brooks feed into the lake off the western slopes of Silver Star, but BX is the lake’s main water source. Swan

Lake is now surrounded by houses, campgrounds, and farms, but still retains most of the marsh that provides food and shelter for the birds. It is most populous in spring and fall, when flocks of ducks and grebes gather to feed during their flight between the ponds of the Cariboo or the prairies and wintering grounds on the Pacific coast. On spring and summer evenings, clouds of swallows and swifts wheel over the lake, feasting on the insect bounty emerging from the water.

North of Swan Lake the road meets Highway 97; turn left here (north) and follow the highway for 3 kilometres as it traverses a low ridge. To the north and east are flat, fertile fields planted with grains and other crops. This ideal farmland extends north to Armstrong and beyond; it is the low-elevation divide between the Okanagan (or Columbia) and the Shuswap (or Fraser) watersheds. This northern tip of the Okanagan is called Spallumcheen, a Native word meaning “flat valley.” Several species of large birds are attracted to these flat fields—hawks and owls patrol them for mice, and long-billed curlews arrive each spring to nest.

The highway swings west and passes the O’Keefe Ranch, once one of the largest ranches in British Columbia and now a popular historic site. Just past the ranch is St. Anne’s Road—turn right here (north). On the west side of the road is a small pond that is well worth a stop if you’re interested in birds. Called O’Keefe’s Pond for obvious reasons, it often hosts an amazing diversity of ducks, coots, and grebes, and all are close at hand for good viewing. Watch for muskrat as well; these rodents are essentially giant aquatic field mice that feed on the lush marsh vegetation that edges the pond. A kilometre from the pond, turn right on Otter Lake Road. Deep Creek flows south through the valley on its way to the north end of Okanagan Lake only 2 or 3 kilometres south of the O’Keefe Ranch. On the west is Grandview Flat, a raised delta formed when the streams in the area flowed into Glacial Lake Penticton at the end of the Pleistocene. The lake—dammed by ice north of Oliver— was then about 150 metres higher than the present elevation of Okanagan Lake.

Otter Lake is a marshy lake like Swan Lake but less than half the length. The road travels along a ridge on the west side of the lake, so the views are best in the afternoon or evening. The east side of the lake is thickly forested in Douglas-fir and trembling aspen, and the lake itself is ringed with cattails and willows. Near the north end of the lake you meet Grandview Flats Road; turn right and, within a few hundred metres, you’ll come to a pull-off overlooking the lake and a sizable marsh. This is well worth a stop almost any day of the year. Teal dabble in the marsh, snipe winnow overhead in spring, and if you’re lucky, a bittern might be heard pumping from the cover of the cattails.

Continue north to Wood Avenue; turn east and work your way through Armstrong to Highway 97A. From there you can turn south to return to Vernon.

focus Long-billed Curlew

Long-billed curlews are the largest members of the sandpiper family in North America. They formerly bred throughout the dry grasslands of western North America but now have a more restricted distribution, since many of those grasslands have been converted to agricultural crops. Curlews have adapted to some croplands in British Columbia, however, using large grain fields that are just sprouting when the birds return in late March. In this manner they have actually increased their range in British Columbia, and small numbers breed as far north as McBride and Vanderhoof, in areas that were forested before agriculture arrived. Curlews’ loud, ringing cries and long, decurved bills make them easy to identify when in flight, but they can be surprisingly hard to see on the ground. They nest in April, their young have hatched by late May, and by early July all the curlews take flight for their wintering grounds on the marine mudflats of California and Mexico. That is where their long bills come in handy, probing deep worm holes for the tasty occupants.