The Kettle Valley Railway was built to service the growing mining industry in the Southern Interior region of British Columbia and the core portion runs from Penticton, past the mountains of Kelowna, through Beverdell, finishing south of Big White in Midway. It was built in 1915 but parts of it had already begun to be abandoned by 1961, with the final segment falling into disuse in 1989. We decided to investigate the segment known as Myra Canyon. It's located just south of Kelowna and has 18 wooden trestles and 2 tunnels in order to traverse the deep canyon. 12 out of the 18 trestles have been replaced due to the 2003 fire that lasted for 2 months and swept through the Okanagan Mountains. We had always fancied taking the children biking along the trestles, as it's flat and the scenery is spectacular but having investigated it on foot there isn't a cats chance in hell that I'll go anywhere near it with Lucy on a bike. The drop down one side is hundreds of feet, sheer cliffs and with no barrier. Apparently there is some woman in Kelowna who is famous for being the only woman to have ever survived a fall in to Myra Canyon! So, unanimous vote, even the boys didn't fancy it and panicked just walking along as Lucy is skipping looking behind her rather than in front! The only person who still seemed up for it was Jamie....huh!!!
You can get to the Canyon from either end, this is the June Springs end...not so scary, but not so interesting either!
The view of Kelowna.
So, then we headed to the other end where the trestles are much closer together, and the views much more impressive. You can see them weaving around and through the mountains, a very majestic sight.
Not sure what's up with Lucy!
There's a trestle spanning that gorge in the distance..honest!
