Myra Canyon - Kettle Valley

Yesterday we took a trip up to Myra Canyon to do some bike riding on the Kettle Valley Railroad. It was an amazing day and a site that I recommend to everyone and anyone!

A brief history lesson:

The Kettle Valley Railway (KVR) is an abandoned railway bed that winds through south central British Columbia between Midway and Hope. It is a typical railway bed with grades that never exceed 2.2 %. "With countless trestles and tunnels, and environs ranging from cool mountain forests to Canada's only pocket desert the 600 km route offers an endless diversity of experiences."

The Myra Canyon section of the Kettle Valley Railway was built between 1912-1914. It was primarily used for freight trains and in 1973 the last scheduled train went through. In 1990 the Province purchased it from the CPR and in 1992 the Myra Canyon Restoration Society was established. In January 2003 this section of the Kettle Valley Railroad was designated a National Historic Site. However, in August 2003 the wildfire that destroyed 200 homes here in Kelowna, ravaged and destroyed 12 wooden tressels and damaged 2 steel tressels.

Due to the huge amount of tourists the Myra Canyon section of the Kettle Valley Railroad draws in (over 50,000+ a year) plans were quickly underway to restore the tressels. Just this year the official re-opening of the trails was launched.

For the complete history, see the links above. I have heard about this for a while now and we finally decided to go up and check it out. We rode 24 km and enjoyed every minute of it! It truly was breathtaking. Because the railway bed is really flat, you never realized how far up you were until you looked down, or until you saw the breathtaking view of the city and the lake. It was a great trip and so worthwhile. We plan to go up again and recommend it to everyone. You don't have to bike it, lots of people were walking and you also do not have to do the full 12 km there and back.