A New Way To Explore
A New Way To Explore
The Okanagan Rail Trail is already an incredible place to walk, run, ride and explore. But this Pass gives you a few more reasons to see where it takes you.
A reason to stop somewhere you've never stopped before. Meet someone new. Discover and support a local business. Learn a little history. Take on a challenge. Share an adventure. And maybe inspire someone else to get out and enjoy the trail.
And that's what our Okanagan Rail Trail Culinary & Adventure Pass is all about.
Our Friends in Business are all unique, but they share something special. They're connected by this historic corridor and by a love for the people, places and communities that make our valley so special. Together, they open up a whole new world of discovery along the trail and just beyond it.
Your Pass might lead you to a business you've never visited, a new flavour or local favourite, an experience you've never tried or a piece of history you never knew.
Whether you set out to discover every Pass Stop or simply see where the Pass takes you, there's always something new waiting to be discovered.
Long before the railway, the route and surrounding lands were used and cared for by the Syilx (Okanagan) people. The railway later connected Okanagan communities.
We believe those stories are worth discovering, remembering and sharing.
Through Our Ties Through Time, found under each business page on this site, you'll discover how each location connects to the railway, the land and the communities that came before us.
And while Our Ties Through Time shares the stories of the past, @okanaganrailtrailpass is where Pass Explorers can share the stories of today.
Share a place you discovered, a Pass Stop you loved, a piece of history that surprised you, the friends you brought along or the new ones you met when you got there. Capture the moments and memories that make your adventure yours, while seeing where the Pass is taking everyone else.
And there's another reason to stay connected.
Throughout the year, @okanaganrailtrailpass is where we'll share special events and invitations, wellness challenges, contests, limited-edition merchandise, new experiences, rewards and a few surprises along the way. And because every Pass has its own unique Ticket Number, keep an eye on yours. You never know when your number might come up!
Every year gives us another opportunity to create something new, and we already have plenty of ideas for where the Pass can go next. Even more exciting is imagining what it can become as our Friends in Business, explorers, artists and communities along the trail become part of creating it with us.
There are so many ways to become part of what comes next. Local artists and students could help create future Pass designs. Our Friends in Business can bring new offers, experiences and collaborations to the Pass. Explorers can inspire challenges, suggest places to discover and share ideas they'd love to see come to life.
Technology will add another layer to the experience too. The design of an interactive Pass app is already in the works, created to complement our tangible Pass and bring another dimension to the experience.
But technology will never replace the Pass at the heart of it. Our limited-edition collectible Passes are here to stay because we believe every great journey deserves something you can hold onto.
And we're already excited to launch next year's Pass in April, giving us an even longer season to celebrate the trail and share everything we have planned for you. New Pass Stops and offers, challenges, experiences and events, collaborations, rewards, merchandise, returning favourites and, of course, a few surprises along the way.
We invite you to get connected and stay connected with us at @okanaganrailtrailpass. Share your ideas, follow along as the next edition comes to life and become part of where this Pass takes us next.
GROWING WITH PURPOSE
The Okanagan Rail Trail exists because communities, governments, businesses, volunteers and thousands of individual donors came together to make it happen.
As the Pass grows, our goal is to find meaningful ways to give back, participate in the stewardship and sustainability of the trail, and support community programs and initiatives that make a difference along the way.
Together, we can explore the Okanagan Rail Trail in a new way, celebrate and share its history, support one another and strengthen the communities it connects.
How It Works
Whether you begin in Kelowna, Coldstream or anywhere in between, there is no required starting point and no required order. Choose your own adventure and enjoy the Pass at your own pace.
Your Pass is annual, so you can spread your adventures throughout the year or take on the whole Pass in a single weekend. It's entirely up to you.
Before heading out, be sure to check the details for each Pass Stop, particularly our seasonal Friends in Business, as operating dates and hours may vary.
1. GET YOUR FREE PASS
Pick up your Pass at any participating Friend in Business location listed on the back of the Pass or here on our site. Look for the Pass Stop Decal at participating locations.
Passes in circulation are limited, so once you have yours, hang onto it!
2. EXPLORE & ENJOY
Visit our Friends in Business from Kelowna to Coldstream, discover what makes each Pass Stop special and enjoy their exclusive Pass offers.
3. REDEEM & REPEAT
Our Friends In Business have generously created these special offers for Pass holders. Offers are subject to availability and each participating business’s individual redemption guidelines. Businesses reserve the right to modify or decline an offer at their discretion.
Picking up your Pass? We encourage you to explore the business while you’re there and return to redeem their Pass Stop offer on your next visit. Same-day redemption is at the discretion of each participating business.
Once validated, that Pass Stop's offer is considered redeemed on your Pass.
4. KEEP YOUR PASS
Be sure to keep your Pass! Every Pass has its own unique Ticket Number, and special rewards connected to your Pass will be announced throughout the year on @okanaganrailtrailpass.
Free and paid parking options are available at various locations along the Okanagan Rail Trail. Parking can be limited at some access points, so it is a good idea to plan where you will begin your Okanagan adventure before setting out.
Located near KM 11 on the Kelowna section of the trail, the Kelowna Fruit Stand offers free parking for Rail Trail users during regular business hours. Sorry, overnight parking is not permitted.
From the parking lot, a short gravel access path leads directly to the Okanagan Rail Trail. Before you head out, or when you return, you can make use of the Fruit Stand’s washrooms, bicycle racks and outdoor rest areas. You can also pick up fresh fruit, food, coffee, cold drinks and other local favourites for your journey.
Visit the Kelowna Fruit Stand website
The following resources can help you find parking, trail access points, washrooms, kilometre markers and current trail information.
Use the official interactive map to locate parking areas, trail access points, kilometre markers, washrooms, garbage facilities and nearby points of interest.
View the Okanagan Rail Trail Interactive Map
Find information about the Kelowna section of the Rail Trail, current trail updates, permitted uses and parking. Parking is limited at some access points, and downtown parking may be paid or time-restricted.
Explore the Okanagan Rail Trail in Kelowna
Parking is free throughout Lake Country, with no municipal pay-parking lots or metered street parking. Public parking near the trail is available at locations including Beasley Park and the Woodsdale tennis courts. Park hours and overnight-parking restrictions apply.
View Lake Country Parking Information
View Lake Country Trail Information
Reiswig Regional Park is located near the south end of Wood Lake and provides convenient access to the surrounding trail network. Regional parks are for day use only, overnight parking is not permitted and operating hours change seasonally.
View Central Okanagan Regional Park Information
View Regional Park Hours and Regulations
Official parking and access points for the North Okanagan section include:
8203 Westkal Road: Trail access, parking and washrooms
Kekuli Bay Provincial Park: Trail access, parking and washrooms
College Way: Trail access, with parking along Kalamalka Lake Road
Coldstream Station: Parking at 16506 Kalamalka Road near the KM 0 Gateway
Parking at Kekuli Bay can be limited during the summer. Visitors should check current information and posted signs before leaving their vehicles.
Sometimes a great idea begins simply because the right people find themselves sharing the right conversation at the right time.
As friends in life and in business, Greet and the Gill family, owners of the Kelowna Fruit Stand, joined Kathy and Rene, founders of Okanagan Valley Programs & Events, around a shared passion: bringing people together, supporting local businesses and finding creative new ways to celebrate the Okanagan we all love. Together, we began imagining how we could give people another fun reason to experience the Okanagan Rail Trail while supporting and celebrating the people and places connected to it.
Together, we began bringing that idea to life, creating an immersive Pass designed to make exploring the Okanagan Rail Trail even more fun while connecting people with the businesses, experiences and stories found along the way.
The Gill family believed in the idea from the beginning and provided the funding needed to bring the Founding Edition to life.
With direct trail access at kilometre 11 and a natural place to welcome explorers and introduce the Friends in Business waiting along the way, the Kelowna Fruit Stand became the Founding Anchor and home of the Pass.
Then things moved quickly.
In just a few short months, the idea moved from concept to launch. Businesses from Kelowna to Coldstream were invited to join us as Friends in Business for the first annual Okanagan Rail Trail Culinary & Adventure Pass. We are incredibly grateful to them for sharing our vision and enthusiasm, jumping aboard and becoming an important part of our story.
What started as a conversation between friends has now become something we can all share. We hope you'll join us in celebrating the history of the Okanagan Rail Trail, get out and enjoy our beautiful valley, create some great memories, make new friends along the way and inspire others to explore it too.
We believe the best journeys are the ones we share.
From the beginning, we wanted the Pass to be about more than discounts. We wanted to introduce you to the people and places that make exploring the Okanagan Rail Trail even more interesting, and to celebrate the businesses that share a connection to our historic corridor.
But their connection goes beyond location.
Among our Friends in Business, you'll find people that support local charities and causes, give back to their communities, champion other local businesses, welcome cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts, celebrate Okanagan agriculture and history, create places for people to gather, and simply believe that our valley is better when we support one another.
Each is special in their own right. They are our farmers, brewers, restaurateurs, creators, aviation pioneers and entrepreneurs, each bringing something unique to our Pass experience.
Along the way, you'll discover what makes each Pass Stop special through their food, products, people and experiences. And on each business page, through Our Ties Through Time, you'll discover how each one connects to the railway, the land and the communities that came before us.
We are incredibly proud to have them aboard for our First Edition, and we hope you'll take the time to stop in, say hello, enjoy their exclusive Pass offers, learn a little about their stories and discover for yourself what makes each one worth the visit.
No.1
1177 Ellis Street, Kelowna
Train Station Pub proudly carries on the legacy of one of Kelowna's most treasured historic landmarks. The original CN station has been welcoming people since 1926, and today that tradition continues with pub favourites, handcrafted burgers, local craft beer and Okanagan wines, all served within the beautifully preserved character of Kelowna's historic railway station.
With its roots firmly connected to the railway that helped shape Kelowna, Train Station Pub is a fitting place to begin your Okanagan Rail Trail adventure, take a break along the way, or celebrate the day's journey.
Its welcoming atmosphere continues the station's long tradition as a place where people gather, connect and share stories, while its support of local organizations and charitable causes carries that spirit into the wider Okanagan community.
In the early 1900s, Okanagan Lake was Kelowna's highway to the outside world. Fruit and vegetables left town by water, with loaded railcars rolled onto barges and carried north to Okanagan Landing before they could finally join the railway. Kelowna had railcars but no railway out of the city.
That changed in 1925, when the tracks from Kamloops finally reached Kelowna after thirteen years of delays, war and financial troubles. Mayor D.W. Sutherland drove a gilded spike into the new line, marking the moment Kelowna gained its first direct rail connection beyond the Valley.
The new CN station became Kelowna's gateway north. Passengers boarded here for the journey through Vernon, Armstrong, Falkland, Westwold and Monte Lake to Kamloops, where the line joined Canada's transcontinental railway. In later years, passengers could even board a sleeping car in Kelowna bound for Edmonton. At Kamloops Junction, the entire sleeper was transferred onto the transcontinental train, allowing its passengers to continue their journey without leaving their railcar.
The station was alive with more than passengers. Luggage and express parcels passed through the baggage rooms, telegrams arrived at the telegrapher's bay, and railway crews unable to make it home after a run could sleep in a nearby railway bunkhouse. Railway gardens surrounded the station, while trains, freight cars and sidings filled the rail yards nearby.
During harvest season, apples and soft fruits were loaded into refrigerated cars and special fruit cars attached to fast passenger trains, reaching major Prairie markets in two days or less. Rail became so important to the Valley's harvest that as late as 1951, 98% of BC Tree Fruits shipments leaving the Okanagan still travelled by train.
Then the way people travelled began to change. Roads improved, families bought cars, and in 1958 the Floating Bridge opened across Okanagan Lake. Regular passenger service between Kelowna and Kamloops eventually ended in 1967.
Today, the historic building that once welcomed passengers now welcomes friends gathering for a meal, a local beer and good conversation. And the railway route that once carried travellers and the Okanagan's harvest now carries a new generation of explorers along the Okanagan Rail Trail!
No.2
1086 Richter Street, Kelowna
10% Off Any Bike Rental
E-Kruise is located in Kelowna’s Brewery and Cultural District, directly beside Red Bird Brewing. This area sits within the north Richter corridor, a zone that evolved from light industrial and rail-adjacent land use into one of the city’s most active districts for local food, beverage, and recreation.
Established in 2019 as the first existing E-bike rental business in Kelowna they have grown thanks to thousands of happy customers. They have expanded to include other amazing Okanagan adventures like Wake Boat rentals.
With the Okanagan's biggest Ebike fleet they can host groups big and small and have added self guided tours and Ebike guided adventures.
E-Kruise believes in offering the highest quality experience by combining amazing customer service, amazing local partners and innovative and engaging technologies, their mission is for you to enjoy the places we call home in a unique way that will leave you with lasting memories.
The home of E-Kruise at 1086 Richter Street sits in a part of Kelowna that was transformed when the railway came to the North End. In 1925, CN engineers were drawing plans for the new railway through this neighbourhood, including rail yards, connections with the CPR and a railway crossing at nearby Cawston Avenue.
Richter was already home to Kelowna families when the railway arrived. Just up the street, a house built in 1909 still survives at 1150 Richter. It belonged to Ernest Clement, who worked in Kelowna's cigar factory, sash-and-door factory and fruit packing houses before becoming a builder. His family left another mark on the neighbourhood—the nearby Clement Avenue carries their name.
As the railway grew, the North End changed with it. Tracks, sidings, rail yards, workshops and industrial businesses became part of the landscape around Richter, Cawston and Clement. For decades, the sound and movement of trains were part of everyday life in this working end of Kelowna.
Eventually the trains disappeared, but transportation is still part of the story at 1086 Richter. Today, Kelowna E-Kruise sends explorers out on e-bikes to discover the city and the Okanagan Rail Trail—the recreational trail born from the railway that helped shape this neighbourhood in the first place.
No.3
1080 Richter Street, Kelowna
15% Off Any Pizza
Red Bird Brewing is a craft brewery and restaurant serving locally brewed beer alongside wood-fired pizza and a made-from-scratch menu. Its spacious indoor-outdoor setting feels made for gathering, with long tables, outdoor fire pits, a large patio and live music that brings local and touring artists to the stage throughout the year.
Red Bird has made bringing people together part of what it does. Throughout the year, its calendar is filled with live music, markets, family events, celebrations and fundraisers supporting local organizations and causes.
The name “Red Bird” is drawn from local history tied to Kelowna’s early regatta culture and a race boat of the same name, reflecting a broader connection to the city’s long-standing relationship with adventure, recreation, competition, and community events.
Before railways, warehouses and breweries filled Kelowna's North End, this was cattle country. In 1883, rancher Arthur Booth Knox purchased land stretching from Richter Street to Okanagan Lake and from Mill Creek north to the mountain that would eventually carry his name, Knox Mountain. His ranch eventually grew to some 4,000 acres.
Knox raised cattle and horses here until 1904, when he sold the property to the Okanagan Fruit & Land Company for $75,000. The enormous ranch was divided into smaller properties as Kelowna began growing around it.
Twenty-one years later the railway reached Kelowna and a new chapter began. The old ranching landscape around the North End gave way to streets, homes, industry and railway tracks including the route that would one day become the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.4
1037 Richter Street, Kelowna
Buy One Get One Free Coffee Card
Red Bird Roasting is a specialty coffee roastery and café where coffee is roasted on site and the craft behind every cup is part of the experience. Guests can enjoy freshly brewed coffee, espresso and single-origin pour-overs alongside baked goods, or join a guided tasting to discover how different origins, growing regions and processing methods create their own unique flavours.
Located only a few short blocks from the Okanagan Rail Trail Red Bird Roasting makes an easy stop before setting out or along the journey. With early morning hours, it's a natural place to grab a coffee and something to eat before heading out on the trail, or to stop in and recharge along the way.
Long before there was a North End, the land around Richter Street was part of a much larger property belonging to early settler Auguste Gillard. His land stretched from Richter Street to Okanagan Lake, with Mill Creek to the south and the country rising toward Knox Mountain to the north.
In 1898, Bernard Lequime purchased Gillard's half-section, and the landscape began to change. Kelowna's early townsite was taking shape, streets were being laid out, and homes and businesses began appearing where open land had stood.
Then, in 1912, The Canadian Northern Railway began buying land through the North End and planning a route into Kelowna. It would take thirteen more years before the first train finally arrived in 1925, but when it did, the railway helped transform this end of town once again.
Today, Red Bird Roasting sits on land that has transformed from open country, to a railway city, to the growing North End we know today. And just a few blocks away, that old railway route lives on as the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.5
1033 Richter Street, Kelowna
Free Appetizer Or Dessert With The Purchase Of A Main
Vice & Virtue Brewing is a craft brewery and kitchen in Kelowna's North End, where beer brewed on site is paired with a menu built around smoke, bold flavours and food made in-house. Guests can settle in for a pint alongside slow-smoked meats, house-baked breads and creative dishes, enjoy weekend brunch, or experience the brewery's weekly four-course Chef's Table.
Vice & Virtue has a strong connection to Kelowna's cycling community. The brewery supports Mountain Bikers of the Central Okanagan, a local non-profit dedicated to building, maintaining and improving trails throughout the region, and has welcomed community cycling events to its doors.
For decades, the railway tracks behind today's 1033 Richter Street were part of a busy working neighbourhood. Railcars didn't simply pass through the North End—they were shunted onto sidings serving businesses that packed, processed and shipped the Okanagan's harvest.
Nearby, even the empty cans used for Sun-Rype juice and pie fillings arrived by rail from Vancouver. Workers unloaded them from the railcars using a specially designed six-pronged fork, then sent them by conveyor into the warehouse. The fruit that filled those cans came from Okanagan orchards, part of an industry that grew around the railway and its connection to markets beyond the Valley.
Today, Vice & Virtue is still making food and drink in this old working neighbourhood. The freight trains behind Richter are gone, but their route has found a new purpose as the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.6
1125 Richter Street, Kelowna
Two For One Tasting Experience
10% Off Retail Purchases
$10 Off Two Or More Shareable Food Items From Thursday - Sunday, 12pm To Close
Sandhill Wines is an urban winery and tasting room in Kelowna's North End, crafting BC wines since 1997. Its wines are made from grapes grown across six vineyards in the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys, from approachable classic varietals to its Small Lots collection of distinctive single-vineyard wines. Guests can explore the collection through guided tastings, enjoy wine alongside culinary offerings, or experience the working barrel room where some of Sandhill's wines continue their journey from vineyard to bottle.
Located close to the Okanagan Rail Trail, Sandhill offers something unusual along the route: an urban winery experience right in the heart of the city. And its connection to this neighbourhood runs deep, the estate was once home to Calona Wines, whose history at this site reaches back to 1951 and to the beginnings of British Columbia's commercial wine industry.
During the Great Depression, Okanagan growers had a problem: too many apples and not enough buyers. In 1932, local businessmen Cap Capozzi, Giuseppe Ghezzi and W.A.C. Bennett launched a new winery, turning some of that unwanted fruit into wine. Bennett would later become Premier of British Columbia.
Early bottles carried names like Okay Red, Okay Clear, Okay Port and Okay Champagne, but some began fermenting again on liquor-store shelves and had to be thrown out. The company changed direction, moved increasingly into grape wine, and became Calona Wines—the beginning of what the City of Kelowna identifies as British Columbia's commercial wine industry.
In 1951, Calona moved from its original waterfront location to this very site at 1125 Richter Street, in the expanding industrial North End. By the 1960s, under Capozzi and his sons, Calona had grown to become the largest winery in British Columbia.
Today, Sandhill Wines carries on the winemaking tradition at this historic estate, just a short distance from the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.7
1186 High Road, Kelowna
15% Off Any Beverage
Railside Brewing was founded by bike and train enthusiasts who created a craft brewery and taproom right alongside the Okanagan Rail Trail. Rotating small-batch brews are served alongside a lineup of house favourites, with a relaxed space that includes a dog-friendly patio, food trucks and plenty of room to park a bike, making it a gathering place for neighbours, families and friends and four-legged friends.
Railside sits alongside the Okanagan Rail Trail at High Road. The brewery has embraced that connection through community rides, cycling events and gatherings that bring people together along the trail. Whether arriving on foot, by bike or by car, Railside is a natural place to stop before continuing your trail journey toward Okanagan Lake or Kalamalka Lake.
Long before there was a brewery beside the trail, trains crossed High Road here. Railway records marked this spot as the High Road crossing at mile 118, with a nearly 6,000-foot loop track beginning just beyond it.
This wasn't simply a railway passing through. Freight trains worked the industrial sidings nearby, with dedicated spurs serving businesses including Gorman Brothers, American Can and Sun-Rype. Railcars moved back and forth carrying the supplies and products of Kelowna's busy North End.
The High Road crossing eventually disappeared as roads and railway operations changed, and the last trains left the corridor. But the route beside today's Railside Brewing survived.
Today, instead of watching a freight train cross High Road, explorers can follow that very railway corridor along the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.8
5225 HWY 97, Kelowna
One Free Drip Coffee
25% Off Any Menu Item
Buy One Get One Free Fruit Smoothie
The Kelowna Fruit Stand was established in 2015 by the Gill family as a way to connect their farming operations in Kelowna and Osoyoos directly to the public. What began as a distribution point for their own orchards quickly expanded into a regional marketplace supporting more than 80 local, BC and Canadian growers, producers and small businesses.
With direct access to the Okanagan Rail Trail, visitors can pull right off the trail, settle into seating overlooking the route, play a game, use the bike tool station, or enjoy fresh-pressed juice, Foothills Creamery ice cream and a full coffee bar alongside Momma Gill's traditional Indian dishes, fresh salads and sandwiches. And then there are the freshly baked fruit pies, loaded with fruit grown in the family's own orchards.
The Gills are a family devoted to farming across the Valley and to the simple act of sharing good food with others. They grow throughout the Okanagan, bringing fruit and produce up from their farm in Osoyoos, where the warm climate and sandy soils produce some of the Valley's most celebrated fruit.
They farm with sustainability in mind, committed to zero-waste practices that carry fruit and produce through a full circle of use, from harvest to table, to livestock feed and eventually back to the soil. They are longtime supporters of local food programs and continue to find ways to share their harvest with others.
Its location directly on the trail also made the Kelowna Fruit Stand a natural home for the founding anchor of the Okanagan Rail Trail Culinary & Adventure Pass, helping bring together businesses along the route and giving this new annual adventure its starting point. We'll share the story of how it all began a little further down the line.
But the real invitation here is to stop in, stay a while and share some stories. The Gills are often on site and love saying hello. Their smiles are as generous as they are, and you may leave feeling a little less like a customer and a little more like part of the Gill family.
Imagine this stretch north of Kelowna a century ago. There was no busy Highway 97, no airport overhead and no Rail Trail. This was farming country, with orchards, fields and rural roads connecting Kelowna with the communities farther north.
In 1923, the province built a new “shortcut” through the area, creating the road that would eventually become the main highway. Just two years later, in 1925, the railway arrived alongside it, carrying passengers, supplies and Okanagan fruit through the Valley.
Then came the sky. In 1946, Kelowna residents voted to purchase a nearby 320-acre ranch for $20,000, and the following year the first flight took off from a small grass airstrip. That little airstrip would eventually become Kelowna International Airport.
Within just 24 years, this quiet agricultural landscape had gained road, rail and air connections, helping move the Okanagan's people and harvest beyond the Valley.
Today, the Kelowna Fruit Stand sits right in the middle of that transportation story: Highway 97 on one side, the former railway and today's Okanagan Rail Trail on the other, and Kelowna International Airport just beyond. And right here, where road, rail and air have connected the Okanagan to the world for generations, you'll find direct access to the beautiful Okanagan Rail Trail and the home of the Okanagan Rail Trail Culinary & Adventure Pass.
No.9
5800 Lapointe Drive, Kelowna
Buy One Get One Free Admission Ticket
The KF Centre for Excellence brings the fascinating story of aviation in the Okanagan and British Columbia to life through historic aircraft, interactive exhibits and hands-on experiences for all ages. Visitors can walk among rare and working aircraft, climb into the pilot's seat of a flight simulator and explore aviation from the cockpit to the control tower. Even the building is part of the story, with sweeping timber hangar roofs built to the exact profile of a Spitfire's wings.
Located beside the runway at Kelowna International Airport, with the Okanagan Rail Trail running just outside its doors, the Centre was created as a legacy project of aviation pioneer Barry Lapointe and KF Aerospace to preserve aviation history and inspire the next generation of pilots, aircraft engineers and aviation enthusiasts. From legendary Second World War aircraft to the DC-3 that once flew around the world, visitors can get remarkably close to the aircraft and stories that helped shape Canadian aviation.
Long before aircraft were taking off outside these doors, this was cattle country. The land that became Kelowna International Airport was the 320-acre Dickson Ranch, part of a rural landscape of farms and ranches north of Kelowna. When the city began looking for a place to build an airport, this location had something important already running nearby: the highway and the railway.
In 1946, Kelowna residents were asked to spend $20,000 to buy the ranch and turn it into an airport. The decision came down to just six votes: 466 in favour and 460 against. The following year, the first aircraft took off from the new grass airstrip known as Ellison Field.
When the airport celebrated its official opening in 1949, people came in numbers no one expected. Around 10,000 people and 3,500 cars headed for the little airfield, creating a traffic jam reportedly stretching nine miles. Many never made it through the gates. Those who did watched a Canadian Pacific aircraft touch down on the 3,000-foot grass runway.
Today, the ranch is gone and that little grass strip has become Kelowna International Airport. But one of the transportation routes that helped make this location attractive all those years ago remains right outside the KF Centre's doors, the former railway, now transformed into the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.10
8999 Jim Bailey Road, Lake Country
15% Off Any In-House Food And Beverage
Britannia Brewing Co. is located on the Kelowna–Lake Country edge of the Okanagan Rail Trail, where the route meets the agricultural and lakeshore landscape of the north Okanagan. The brewery offers a large indoor-outdoor gathering space with direct access for cyclists and travellers moving between Kelowna and Lake Country.
The space features a full-service restaurant, craft brewery, cocktail program and expansive patio with seasonal outdoor seating, fire features and open lawn space. Guests can stop in for beer flights, casual dining, weekend brunch or an afternoon on the patio, with a menu that blends elevated pub-style food with Okanagan-inspired dishes.
With direct access to the Okanagan Rail Trail, Britannia welcomes cyclists, families and groups, with bike-friendly access and plenty of room to gather before continuing the journey through Lake Country.
Long before Britannia Brewing had an address here, Jim Bailey Road carried the name of one of Winfield's early farmers. James “Jim” Bailey came to the Okanagan as a young child in the 1890s, later settling in Winfield with his wife Emily. He farmed here and also worked as a blacksmith, a trade that would have been essential in an agricultural community still relying heavily on horses, wagons and farm equipment.
As orchards spread through Lake Country, the railway running nearby became essential to getting the harvest to market. Packing houses grew up around the line, where generations of workers sorted, wrapped, packed and loaded Okanagan fruit for its journey beyond the Valley.
Then came a small idea that changed how the Okanagan handled apples. In 1957, workers at Winfield's Vernon Fruit Union packing house developed the Okanagan's first bulk apple bins. The first 500 bins made two trips each and moved the equivalent of 25,000 boxes of apples.
Today, Britannia Brewing sits on Jim Bailey Road beside the old railway corridor. The farmer and blacksmith whose name remains on the road would hardly recognize the neighbourhood, but one thing is still familiar: this route continues to connect people through Lake Country, now as the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.11
16012 Oyama Road, Oyama
Seasonal Lakeside Location
Two For One Ice Cream Cone
OKF Grill is a seasonal lakeside favourite in Oyama, serving up classic comfort food in a relaxed setting at the north end of Wood Lake. The menu is made for an easy summer stop, with burgers, fries, poutine, fish and chips, milkshakes and ice cream, all enjoyed with outdoor seating and the lake just steps away.
Its location puts OKF Grill right along one of the most scenic stretches of the Okanagan Rail Trail, where the route travels through Oyama between Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake. A longtime supporter of the people and organizations connected to the trail, OKF has welcomed cyclists, families and community gatherings, including Friends of Okanagan Rail Trail volunteers. Whether arriving on foot, by bike or by car, it's a casual place to stop, grab something to eat and enjoy a little more time beside the lake.
Long before trains travelled through Oyama, this narrow stretch between Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake was already an important transportation route. Early colonial maps actually labelled the Oyama isthmus “The Railroad.” The name is believed to refer to a much older Syilx method of moving canoes and heavy loads between the two lakes, possibly using intertwined poles or logs laid across the muddy crossing.
By the early 1900s, Oyama's orchards were producing increasing amounts of fruit, but there was still no railway through town. Apples were loaded onto boats and barges and carried across Kalamalka Lake to the north end, then taken to Vernon to finally meet the railway. In 1908, a navigation canal opened between Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake, and the City of Vernon became the first steamer to pass through it.
Packing houses soon appeared around the water route. The Vernon Fruit Union opened a cooperative packing house in Oyama in 1913, followed by Stirling and Pitcairn in 1914. Workers loaded boxes of apples onto barges at the canal, beginning a journey by water that would eventually connect their fruit with trains bound beyond the Valley.
Then the railway finally came directly through Oyama in the 1920s, and the boats were no longer needed to carry the harvest to the railhead. The same narrow crossing that had moved people and goods between these two lakes for generations became part of a modern railway route.
Today, OKF Grill sits beside this remarkable little transportation crossroads, between Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake and just off the former railway. The trains are gone, but travellers are still making their way through Oyama along the same corridor, now as the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.12
3950 Irvine Road, Oyama
Seasonal Orchard Location
20% Off A Cider
20% Off A Juice
One Free Kids Activity Admission
Folktale Cider is a family-run orchard and craft cidery in the heart of Oyama, where small-batch cider is made with 100% Okanagan apples. Its tasting lounge and café serves cider alongside specialty coffee, local beer and wine, with a seasonal menu inspired by locally grown ingredients.
But Folktale was created with the whole family in mind. Outside, the orchard becomes part of the experience, with a giant jumper, farm zipline, chickens, play areas and plenty of space for families to spend an afternoon together. Fruit, flowers and vegetables are also grown on the property and offered when in season, while the picnic area welcomes friendly dogs.
The Okanagan Rail Trail is just a short ride away, with Oyama Station Beach also nearby. Folktale offers an orchard stop just beyond one of the trail's most beautiful stretches, where Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake frame the journey through Oyama.
Folktale Cider sits on Irvine Road, a road named for one of Oyama's early orchard families. Dr. William Irvine arrived in Oyama in 1904 and purchased 40 acres overlooking Wood and Kalamalka lakes. Within a year or two, he is believed to have planted one of the area's first cherry trees, beginning an orchard tradition that would help shape this part of the Valley.
The Irvine family became deeply woven into early Oyama life. Henry Irvine was appointed the community's first postmaster in 1906, with the post office later operating from Dr. Irvine's home, while Barbara Irvine became the first teacher at Oyama's little white school. Even the name Oyama has an Irvine connection: Elizabeth Irvine submitted the name for the new post office, after Japanese Field Marshal Iwao Oyama.
In 1927, William Irvine, John Irvine and Edgar Sherwood formed the Unity Fruit Company. By then, the railway had reached Oyama, changing how the area's growing harvest could travel beyond the Valley. Local orchards and packing houses no longer had to send their fruit by water to meet the railway elsewhere.
Today, fruit is still being grown on Irvine Road, with Folktale Cider adding its own chapter to Oyama's agricultural story. And just a short ride away, the railway that once helped carry the Okanagan's harvest to the outside world lives on as the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.13
15686 Pelmewash Parkway, Oyama
Seasonal Farm Market
$5 Off With A Purchase Of $20 Or More
Gatzke Farm Market is a family-run orchard and farm market where the Gatzke family has been growing fruit in Oyama since 1929. More than 50 varieties of tree fruit are grown throughout the season, with cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, pears and apples arriving at the market as each harvest comes ready.
Alongside fresh fruit and produce, the market offers baked goods, ice cream and products made from the abundance of the farm and orchard, including their Oyama Fire salsa. Their “100M Diet” philosophy keeps things especially close to home, using as much farm-grown product as possible from within 100 metres of where visitors sit and enjoy it.
Located on Pelmewash Parkway between Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake, Gatzke Farm Market is just off the Okanagan Rail Trail as it continues north through Oyama toward Coldstream. Whether arriving on foot, by bike or by car, it's a chance to experience what is growing in Oyama before continuing the journey along the Okanagan Rail Trail.
The Gatzke family's story in Oyama begins with a train and a missed stop. Grandpa Leo Gatzke fell asleep while travelling by rail, missed where he was supposed to get off, and that unexpected journey eventually brought him to Oyama. By 1929, the Gatzke family had begun a farming legacy here that continues generations later.
In 1925, the landscape around what would soon become the Gatzke farm was changing too. The Canadian National Railway completed its line between Kamloops and Kelowna, laying the tracks along the narrow eastern shore of Wood Lake. Orchards were spreading through Oyama, and the railway gave local growers a new connection for moving their fruit beyond the Valley.
In 1942, Leo built the family's original fruit stand. During the quieter winter months, he liked to sit inside beside the warm woodstove and listen to music, a little piece of family history that is still remembered at the farm today.
Over the decades, the Gatzke family continued farming this land as the world around it changed. The orchards grew, the highway changed and eventually the trains disappeared from the railway beside Wood Lake.
Today, the Gatzke family is still here, and so is the old railway route. A missed train helped bring Grandpa Leo to Oyama more than a century ago, and today that old train route brings a new generation of travellers past the family farm along the Okanagan Rail Trail.
No.14
16500 Kalamalka Road, Coldstream
A Complimentary Flat Tire Service
For more than 80 years, Sun Country Cycle has been helping people discover the simple joy of getting out on two wheels. A longtime part of the North Okanagan cycling community, they have grown through generations of riders while continuing to share a love of cycling, adventure and getting people outside.
Whether you're an experienced cyclist, shopping for a child's first bike, curious about trying an e-bike or simply need a little help keeping your own bike rolling, you'll find a welcoming team ready to help. Their shop carries road, mountain, gravel, recreational, kids' and electric bikes, along with cycling gear, apparel, parts and accessories, backed by a full-service repair department for everything from a flat tire and basic adjustments to complete overhauls. And when the seasons change, you'll even find Nordic and snow gear inside.
At the northern end of the Okanagan Rail Trail, Sun Country Cycle is right where you'd expect to find them, welcoming riders, keeping wheels turning and sending explorers off on their next adventure.
In 1925, the CN Railway completed the line connecting the North Okanagan to Kelowna, travelling from the Coldstream area along Kalamalka and Wood Lakes, through Oyama and what is now Lake Country, before continuing south into Kelowna. For the communities, farms and orchards along the way, the railway opened a new connection to the rest of Canada.
Before those tracks arrived, imagine crates of freshly picked fruit being loaded onto large, flat-bottomed boats called scows, pulled across Kalamalka Lake by tugboats, unloaded at the north end of the lake and then taken to Vernon, where they could finally begin their journey by rail. Once the new railway came through, fruit could be loaded much closer to where it was grown and travel directly along the new line.
Coldstream became part of that busy railway corridor, with its own station and siding and rail connections serving the area's agricultural industry. The trains eventually stopped running, but the route didn't disappear. The tracks became the Okanagan Rail Trail we explore today.
But this wasn't the first route connecting people through the valley. For thousands of years, the Syilx (Okanagan) people travelled a network of trails throughout their territory to fish, hunt, gather, connect with one another and take part in cultural and spiritual activities.
More than a century later, we're still travelling the same corridor, connecting the same communities. Today, we get to walk it, run it, ride it and explore the Okanagan Rail Trail in a whole new way.
The 2027 Collectible Pass is already in the works and will launch this April, along with plenty of new reasons to get out and explore.
We're also developing an interactive Pass app, designed to complement our collectable Pass and add another dimension to the experience.
If you'd like to become one of our Friends in Business for next year's journey, we'd love to hear from you at hello@okanaganrailtrailpass.ca
Follow @okanaganrailtrailpass on Instagram to be the first to discover what's happening now and what's coming next!
Our Founding Edition Passes are available exclusively through our participating Friends in Business.
Friends in Business can request additional Passes at the email below. For general Pass inquiries, we welcome explorers to contact us there too.
Please email us at hello@okanaganrailtrailpass.ca