Day 8 - Kamloops to Vernon

Today we move on from Kamloops. As we head east on Highway 1, there's welcome blue sky, and the company of the trains again.

Then we turn south on Highway 97, and soon stop for breakfast by Monte Lake.

We continue nearly to Vernon, then stop at the O'Keefe Ranch. O'Keefe, from Ontario, joined the gold rush (sailing from the Atlantic Coast to Panama, then from Panama up the Pacific coast). Reaching Barkerville at the end of the gold trail, he realised the potential market for cattle for the prospectors, and headed south to Oregon to bring cattle north. He stopped at the top of Okanagan Lake - good country for cattle rearing, and half the distance from Oregon to Barkerville. He prospered, and built up the ranch with an unexpected mansion in this remote location (highways and railway came much later). Ultimately the ranch was left as a heritage site.

 

This is the O'Keefe house

Above the museum, with lots of interesting stuff about cowboys (including the fact that 70% of cowboys were in fact "Indians"), there was a massive model railway display, featuring representations of real CPR locations. So here you go, Jules...

Back outside, we rode on the "B.X." (BC Express) stage coach

and visited the little church

There were lots of farm animals which the girls loved, and we lunched on buffalo burgers.

The view below is typical of today's countryside: arid hills with lush grassland in the valleys (much of it through irrigation)

And so on to Vernon: a surprisingly large town, with no obvious centre. Our hotel is more comfortable, the railway runs under our window (but we've seen no trains!). It's trying to rain again - the morning's sunshine clouded over by midday.