There are camping sites at Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park, which were all full. There were also day-use parking spots, but all of those were full too. We scored a spot on the main road before the turnoff to Kentucky Lake. Since we weren’t sure what to expect, we thew on our hiking shoes and decided to go have a look around.

Kentucky Lake was the closest off the main highway, and our parking spot. So we walked down toward the water. There is pretty much no beach, so we decided to hike around the lake instead of lounging by the water. You’d definitely want to bring some floating devices like a SUP, floatie, or kayak.

The hike around Kentucky Lake was absolutely stunning, with views of the water the entire time. It’s about a 5km hike around the lake. It’s not technical at all, and the trail is well worn. There were a few spots where people had brought their own chairs, or fishing gear, and enjoying themselves in the water. It was easy to physical distance, and we lucked out with not running into anyone except for a couple near the end of the hike.

There seemed to be 2 main areas to access the water. There were people who set up their stuff like they were at the beach, but it just looked crowded and unsavory. I wanted to dip my legs into the water but it was simply too crowded so we decided to leave. On the way out, we checked out the other lake, Alleyne Lake. It was even more crowded! I snapped a quick picture because I liked the view and how you could see the golden hills in the distance. Both lakes were absolutely stunning, and we’d like to go back to get on the water.

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Friday Afternoon – Wineries and Golf

I was expecting my friend to show up a little closer to noon, so that we could possibly have lunch before heading out for wine tastings. And also have time to get in a round of golf afterward. She was wrapping up her work trip “nearby” just north of Vernon, but there was so much traffic so it took her a bit longer than expected to get into Kelowna. Though, it really really didn’t matter what time we started because you can only really hit up so many wineries before they all start to taste the same… if you know what I mean.

We headed out to Summerland because we like a lot of wineries out there, and since it was the long weekend we thought we would try and avoid the crowds locally in Kelowna. We drove down and started our tasting up at Thornhaven. The last time we went, we loved everything they had to offer. This time we found everything to be much sweeter than we remembered. It was good, but today it was not to our taste. We had a great time in the tasting room though, as we lucked out between crowds and had the whole place to ourselves.

In addition to Thornhaven winery, we also went to Lunessence, Silkscarf, and Sumac Ridge before we headed back. Lunessence has great red wines and beautiful views of the vineyard and the lake. One of our friends really likes Silkscarf so we went back, but again we really didn’t care for it so I think we’ll stop trying. Shelby really likes wines from Sumac Ridge so we brought her there to wrap up the winery tastings. Sumac Ridge had a great range of wine to try, and we really like the Stellars Jay bubbly from there. After trying not to buy too many wines, we had a decent haul for ourselves to bring home.

Summerland is a quick jaunt away from Kelowna, so it didn’t take very long to get back. We put on our golf gear before we went wine tasting, so we were able to drive straight to the golf course. We decided to take Shelby to 2 Eagles in West Kelowna. She said she hadn’t played in a while, and we thought the front 9 offers beautiful views, isn’t terribly challenging, super walkable and gives you a good opportunity to socialize.

Since we were playing a twilight round and it was getting late, we decided to just eat at the course. The weather was super nice and we sat out on the patio.

Saturday – Hikes, Brunch, Charcuterie and Dinner

Sunday started off with a hike at Knox Mountain. If you’ve never hiked anywhere in Kelowna, Knox is a great place for it to be your first. We parked in the lower lot, and took the trail up to the top. We hiked Apex to Camelot to Ogopogo to Paul’s Tomb.

It took us a little over 90 minutes to do the hike, and then headed out for brunch at Central.

The food is pretty consistent at Central. We ended up crashing their luau party, so they had an even more fun selection of food. But we all ended up deciding to order off the regular menu. Brunch was really filling, so we decided that the beach was in order to relax and enjoy the afternoon.

There are tons of beaches in Kelowna, but Gyro is a nice place to go if it’s your first time. There’s plenty of parking, and the beach is quite large with a mix of sand, and grassy areas at the back. There are nice restrooms and change rooms nearby, as well as a simple food kiosk. There’s also a ton of shops and restaurants nearby, so it’s really quite a good setup.

Since we had been out all day, we headed home for our own little happy hour and dinner. Our friends turned us onto truffle salami, so we put some of that out with home made hummus and garden grown cherry heirloom tomatoes. We love snacking at our house, so we think we put together a pretty mean charcuterie. We will soon have to get ourselves a graze board since those seem to be all the rage, but I like keeping all the snacks separate so they don’t get soggy and mixed up.

Justin made lightly grilled albacore tuna, Shishito peppers, yams, yellow zucchini and grilled romaine for dinner.

After dinner, we ended up hanging outside on the patio some more with a couple bottles of wine. It was the perfect temperature, not too hot and not too cold. There was a slight breeze and didn’t seem like there were too many mosquitos out. We fired up the outdoor fireplace, and turned on the string lights. It was a perfect way to cap off Shelby’s visit.

Sunday – Chilling and Mountain Biking

Shelby wanted to hit the road early since she was heading back to Vancouver, so she left in the morning. Justin and I ended up going mountain biking to wrap up our weekend.

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The Bear Creek Loop Trail is well marked. It’s 2.1 kilometer and ranked as a moderate effort. It’s a great loop for trail running, as it’s not very technical and offers stunning views. There are views of the lake, as well as a waterfall. There were more stairs than I would’ve liked for a hike that we were doing the day after a half marathon, but overall a really nice loop. The parking lot is a good size and the trailhead is well marked.

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