Outdoor Destinations in Apex, BC
5 verified outdoor destinations in Apex.
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Adventure Skating Loop & Shinny Pond – Apex
Apex's Adventure Skating Loop is the thing visitors photograph and then can't quite explain to friends: a kilometre of Zamboni-smoothed ice looping through the forest, so that you skate between the trees rather than around a rink, with the snow banked high on either side and the lights coming on as the afternoon fades. The resort calls it famous with some justification — there is nothing else like it in the Okanagan. Beside it sits the Shinny Pond for pickup hockey (sticks stay on the pond, not the loop), and a new Skate Shack at the start of the loop, near the road into the village, sells skate passes and rents skates and helmets on weekends (Friday and Saturday noon to 8 pm, Sunday noon to 6 pm), with rentals also available daily from the main rental shop — a deposit is required, and after hours the skates go into the dropbox at the Gunbarrel Saloon. For 2026/27 a full-day skate pass is $15 for ages 13 and up and $7.50 for 12 and under, good for both the loop and the pond. Everyone on the ice wears skates, helmets are recommended, and strollers and carried children stay off the surface. It is weather-dependent natural ice, maintained daily when conditions allow, and part of Apex's Friday and Saturday night line-up along with night skiing and tubing — so plan a lap under the lights and then thaw out at the Gunbarrel.
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Apex Mountain Resort
Apex is Penticton's home mountain, a short 30-minute drive from town — 33 km, and 23 km from Penticton Airport — with 2,000 vertical feet and 1,112 skiable acres of north-east-facing terrain that catches the region's dry champagne powder, about 500 cm of it a year. Its 85 runs break down as 11 novice, 27 intermediate and 43 advanced, served by a high-speed quad, a triple chair, a T-bar and a magic carpet, and four terrain parks step up from the kids' Little Nuggets through Okanagan and Prospector to the big-feature Claim Jumper. Friday and Saturday nights are Apex's signature: from 4 to 9 pm the T-bar and Magic Carpet run under lights for night skiing on the Okanagan Run and the lit Okanagan Terrain Park, the tube park glows for night tubing, the skating loop is open late from its new Skate Shack, and the Gunbarrel Saloon — voted Canada's best après-ski bar ten times running — sits at the bottom of the run; Friday nights come with half-price lift tickets and rentals. Off the slopes, the Tim Hortons Tube Park and the kilometre-long Adventure Skating Loop through the trees each have their own page on Okanagan Roam, and Nickel Plate Nordic Centre is 6.5 km further up the road. When you arrive, take a left at the Y for the main parking lot; a winter shuttle runs from Penticton on weekends. Apex operates in winter only.
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Brent Mountain Trail
Brent Mountain is the alpine summit above Apex, and the Brent Mountain Trail climbs roughly 5 km through the Brent Mountain Protected Area with 444 metres of elevation gain to the 2,203-metre top, where an unused fire lookout stands in a 360-degree view of the Coast and Monashee ranges and the Okanagan; BC Parks says the trail is well marked and to allow four to five hours return. The main parking area is about 8 km up the Shatford Forest Service Road from Apex Mountain Road; a high-clearance vehicle is recommended and the road carries active logging traffic. There are no facilities, so treat any water. Pets and domestic animals must be on a leash at all times.
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Nickel Plate Nordic Centre
Nickel Plate sits at 1,850 metres, 6.5 km past Apex Mountain Resort on the Hedley/Nickel Plate Road and about 45 minutes from downtown Penticton, and its elevation gives it one of the longest ski seasons in Canada. There are 45 km of groomed trails for both classic and skate skiing and 22.5 km of marked snowshoe trails, with rentals, lessons and snowshoe tours through the season. Dogs are welcome on the K-9 loop at any time, and on the Evening Star, Nighthawk and Speculator trails on Thursdays and Sundays after 1 p.m., subject to grooming and weather; keep them on leash and pack out their waste. Day passes, flex passes and memberships are sold through the centre.
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Tim Hortons Tube Park – Apex
The Tim Hortons Tube Park is Apex's guaranteed-laughter option — the resort's own words are "thrown down the run", and that is about right. It sits at the base area beside the beginner slopes, runs on weekends and holidays through the season, and comes alive on Friday and Saturday nights when the lights come on and tubing joins night skiing on the T-bar and Magic Carpet from 4 to 9 pm, with the Gunbarrel Saloon — ten times voted Canada's best après-ski bar — at the bottom of the run for afterwards. Tickets for the 2026/27 season are sold in two-hour blocks: $30 for adults, teens, seniors and students, $20 for juniors aged 8 to 12, and $16 for children 7 and under and for masters 70 and over, with extra hours at $5, a $15 Friday Night Special for all ages and a $75 family rate for up to six. Children need to be 42 inches tall to ride alone; smaller kids share a double tube with a parent or have their tube held on the way down. Hours shift over the holidays, so check the resort's hours page or call the office before you drive up, and remember Apex is a 30-minute drive from Penticton with a weekend shuttle from town.