This little lake next to Kruger Mountain Road is currently surrounded by lush green spring vegetation. Many water birds and others were congregating here.
When I need to recharge my batteries, one of my favourite short trips — about 15 minutes outside Osoyoos — is the South Okanagan Grasslands, Kilpoola Lake and the Sage and Sparrow Conservation Area. It’s accessible by a rough and narrow dirt road that’s probably better suited for a 4X4, but is passable in my VW Golf when it’s dry. This Mother’s Day Sunday the weather was perfect — low 20s — and I spent several hours up there. (© Richard McGuire Photo)
It’s called Blue Lake, but this lake next to Kruger Mountain Road is very green in colour. It is surrounded by flowering bushes.
Kruger Mountain Road is more of a dirt track that becomes narrower and rougher the farther in you go. It winds through forests before emerging in the grasslands.
Kilpoola Lake is a small lake surrounded by grasslands. On a May weekend, a number of people came to fish for rainbow trout, which the lake is stocked with each year.
Cattle cool their heels at the shore of Kilpoola Lake. Cattle ranching is done on parts of the South Okanagan Grasslands.
The road peters out as it crosses a cattle range. This mother and calf stood blocking my car and refused to move. I had to inch closer and closer and they didn’t budge until I was within a couple feet of them.
Kilpoola Lake is surrounded by sweet-smelling sagebrush. On a pleasant May weekend, there was still a lot of green. Later in the summer the area becomes much drier.
The road into Kilpoola Lake is narrow and dirt. It winds through grasslands with sagebrush and the occasional aspen.
A few people fish in boats on small Kilpoola Lake on a May weekend. The lake is stocked each year with rainbow trout.
Clusters of aspens are bright green amidst the sagebrush of the South Okanagan Grasslands above Kilpoola Lake.
On a May weekend there is still snow on the mountains across the Similkameen Valley. A narrow rough road leads into the Sage and Sparrow Conservation Area.
Yellow arrowleaf balsamroot flowers dot the hillside in the Sage and Sparrow Conservation Area.
My little Volkswagen Golf isn’t the best vehicle for exploring some of the rough dirt roads of the South Okanagan Grasslands. Many people opt for 4X4 trucks instead. There’s no room for passing.
On a May weekend there is still snow on the mountains across the Similkameen Valley. This area is right on the Canada-U.S. border, which is more of an invisible line here.
From this hilltop in the South Okanagan Grasslands, you look down into the Similkameen Valley. This point is in Canada, but the valley is in the United States.
Fluffy cumulus clouds roll over the South Okanagan Grasslands, casting moody shadows.
Fluffy cumulus clouds roll over the South Okanagan Grasslands, casting moody shadows.
