Adventure in the Okanagan
22 outdoor destinations for adventure across the Okanagan Valley.
Rock climbing, bike parks, tubing and skating loops — the bigger, louder days out.
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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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Big White Ski Resort
Big White is the Okanagan's big mountain resort, up the road from Kelowna and open year-round. It is the second-largest family ski resort in British Columbia — 2,834 acres of patrolled terrain, one of Canada's largest modern lift systems and more than seven metres of the champagne powder behind its motto, 'it's the snow' — and from December 18 it also runs the largest night-skiing operation in Western Canada, lighting the Bullet Express and Plaza Chair for 38 acres and the longest night vertical in North America, with TELUS Park lit on Friday and Saturday nights. Free Snow Host mountain tours leave the Village Centre every morning at 10:15, and for the 2026/27 season Happy Valley's beginner area gains Polar Passage, a new covered conveyor lift with expanded teaching terrain. Happy Valley is also where the rest of Big White's winter lives: the Tube Park, Canada's highest outdoor skating rink, 25 kilometres of Nordic and Wilderness trails, the illuminated Twinkling Trail, Candle Creek Kennels' dog-sled tours, Outback's snowmobile tours and the horse-drawn sleigh rides — each with its own page on Okanagan Roam. The 2026/27 season runs November 26, 2026 to April 4, 2027. In summer the mountain turns into a bike park — downhill trails, the Big White Slopestyle Centre and a beginner skills area — with scenic rides on the Bullet Chair, e-bike tours and a real alpine hiking network: the 4.5 km Rhonda Lake Trail drops from the top of the chair through spruce and pine to a lake hidden under the Cliff bowl (about an hour one way, 456 metres of elevation), the 1 km Peak Trail loops along the Cliff Bowl rim to the summit cairn in 45 minutes, the 4 km Falcon Ridge Trail climbs the face of the mountain past wildflower streams to a scramble at the saddle, and the short, steep Jamieson Loop finds the last of the winter snow. The resort suggests three hours for the classic loop up Falcon Ridge and down to Rhonda Lake, backed by its wildflower and bird field guides. Hikers ride the chair until 4 p.m. (6 p.m. on Fridays), and dogs are welcome on the lift and must be leashed on the trails. The resort lists driving, parking and EV charging among its free amenities, offers overnight RV parking in summer, and runs shuttles from Kelowna and the airport.
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Bridlewood Riding Centre
Saddle up for a guided trail ride across hundreds of acres of Lake Country ranchland, with rides tailored for every ability from first-timers to seasoned riders.
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Freedom Flight Park & School
Freedom Flight Park & School is the North Okanagan’s free-flight base at 249 Mabel Lake Road in Lumby, a 20-minute drive from Vernon and about an hour from Kelowna. It offers tandem paragliding and hang-gliding flights for first-timers who want to fly with an instructor, powered trike flights, and lessons for anyone who wants to learn to fly for themselves, from a flight park set against the hills of the Lumby valley. Tourism Vernon lists it alongside Okanagan Skydive as one of the region’s two aerial-sport operators. Flights depend on the day’s wind and weather, so bookings are arranged with the school in advance.
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Full Cyrcle Adventures
Full Cyrcle Adventures runs guided off-road UTV and 4×4 buggy tours from its base at 4270 Swamp Road in south-east Kelowna — Tourism Kelowna describes it as the city’s only adventure-tour company offering UTV tour experiences. Guests drive their own buggy after a short training session, following a professional guide through mountain roads, forested and rocky trails and scenic lookouts on a two-hour round trip; family off-road and more demanding mountain tours are offered, with departures at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tours are private-group bookings, so a family or group of friends has the trail to themselves. The company also runs chartered boat trips on Okanagan Lake as a separate service.
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Graystokes Snowmobile Area – Kelowna Snowmobile Club
The Graystokes is the Central Okanagan's big sledding country: a high plateau of meadows, bowls and forest roads east of Kelowna where the Kelowna Snowmobile Club, riding since 1968, grooms more than 300 kilometres of trail across Graystokes Provincial Park and the Myra-Bellevue zone and keeps eight warm-up cabins stocked and standing — Main Cabin, Hilltop, K-Dog, Uncle Tom's and Whitehouse in the Graystokes, and Doghouse, Canyon Lakes and Priest Creek on the Myra side. The pin here marks the Graystokes Main staging lot; the club also publishes the 201 and Myra staging areas, and its trail maps, GPS waypoints and an interactive Gaia map are free to download. A day pass is $30 including tax, bought online through the club's store before you go, and proof of purchase is checked at the staging areas — BCSF members save $5 at the trailhead. Only snowmobiles are allowed on the groomed trails in winter (no ATVs or tracked side-by-sides), and this is avalanche and backcountry terrain, so ride prepared. The club's annual events and grooming updates are posted on its site and social channels.
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Hoodoo Adventure Company
Penticton's outdoor-adventure outfitter for guided tours and rentals, including an e-bike ride out to the historic Adra Tunnel on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail. Book a guide or grab the gear and explore on your own.
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Inspire Trails – Myra Canyon Ranch
Inspire Trails runs guided horseback trail rides from Myra Canyon Ranch at 4675 June Springs Road in south-east Kelowna, on the way up to the Myra Canyon trestles. Rides go out every morning and afternoon, with a gentle one-hour scenic ride ($125 per person) offering an easy introduction for first-time riders and a panoramic view over the Okanagan Valley; the guides know the trails and the wildlife along them, and riders regularly see eagles, owls, deer and marmots, with a resident great grey owl near the ranch. Inspire reopened at its new home on the ranch on April 20, 2026 and takes bookings online for the season; ride times can shift with the weather.
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Johns Family Nature Conservancy Regional Park
Johns Family Nature Conservancy is more than 400 hectares of parkland in south Kelowna with panoramic views of the Okanagan Valley and trails that lead to The Crags, a well-known climbing spot. It is also Canada's third Nocturnal Preserve, a Royal Astronomical Society of Canada designation that keeps artificial light to a minimum, so the sky here is as much of a draw as the view. The main parking lot is off Chute Lake Road just outside the city boundary, less than 1 km along the gravel. Hikers can also start from Lakeshore Road: the Lebanon Creek Greenway is a 2.3 km climb with 450 metres of elevation gain up to the top of the Crags, with shorter trails to make a loop or reach the Kettle Valley neighbourhood; its Lakeshore Road vehicle entrance is closed from November 1 to April 1. A washroom is on site, dogs are welcome on leash, and hours shift seasonally, from 6 a.m. to between 6 and 11 p.m., with reduced maintenance from November 1 to April 1.
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LocoLanding Adventure Park
LocoLanding is Penticton’s seasonal outdoor adventure park at 75 Riverside Drive, beside the Okanagan Lake end of the channel. The draw for adventure-minded families is the high-level ropes course and the climbing wall, backed by an outdoor go-kart track with double-seat karts so parents and kids can race together, bumper boats, the Monkey Motion bungee trampoline, the Badlands inflatable park with slides, an extreme ninja course and a balance platform, and a mini-golf course. You pay per attraction or buy a value pack, with reduced rates for kids aged 4–12 and seniors and free entry for children three and under with a paying adult. The park opens daily from May into early September (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. late in the season) and closes for the winter.
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Okanagan ATV Tours
Okanagan ATV Tours is a family-run adventure company based at 5463 McDougald Road above Peachland, running guided ATV and side-by-side tours for every skill level into the backcountry above Okanagan Lake. The company operates with full licensing and permissions for the trails beyond the standard riding areas, so a two-hour tour climbs from the base through forest roads and hill trails to viewpoints over the lake, with guides handling the route-finding and a safety orientation before you ride. It draws riders from Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon and Osoyoos and takes bookings for longer and private tours as well as the standard two-hour outing.
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Okanagan Adventure Park
Okanagan Adventure Park is the new home of the former Myra Canyon Adventure Park, now on Highway 33 east of Kelowna. The park is built around an aerial treetop obstacle course and ziplines, with a guided Zipline Tour through the canopy, a Canyon Swing that reaches speeds of up to 100 km/h, and a dedicated Kid's Course for younger climbers. In the fall shoulder season it opens for drop-in visits on weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with weekdays by advance or same-day phone booking. Everyone signs a liability waiver, and a parent or legal guardian must sign for anyone under 19.
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Okanagan Ballooning
Float above orchards, vineyards and Okanagan Lake at sunrise on a hot-air balloon tour, one of the most unforgettable ways to see the valley.
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Okanagan Parasail
Okanagan Parasail lifts off from the Waterfront Promenade on the downtown Kelowna waterfront, behind the Delta hotel and right on the boardwalk. You launch from the back of the boat and land on it again, and from up there the whole sweep of Okanagan Lake opens out — the city on one side, dry hills on the other. Flights go up solo, double or triple, so you can share the view rather than take it in alone. Parasailing is one of the few Okanagan activities that puts you above the lake instead of on it, and it takes no experience: the crew straps you in, lets the line out, and reels you back to the deck. The season runs April through September, with the boat out from 9 am until dusk.
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Okanagan Skydive
Okanagan Skydive is the only skydiving operation in the valley, flying tandem jumps and complete solo-certification programs straight out of the Vernon Regional Airport on Tronson Road, 45 minutes from Kelowna. Every tandem student is paired with a highly experienced, certified tandem master; after the climb-out you get about 35 seconds of freefall and then a peaceful parachute ride over the orchards, vineyards and lakes of the North Okanagan before landing back at the airport. Tourism Vernon lists it as the only skydiving experience in the Okanagan Valley. Jumps are weather-dependent and booked in advance through the operator, which also runs first-jump courses for anyone who wants to progress beyond a tandem.
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Okanagan Stables
Okanagan Stables offers guided trail rides in the hills of Oyama, in Lake Country between Kelowna and Vernon, from its stables on the land between Talbot Road and Pada Road. Four ride programs suit different ages and comfort levels — from a mini introduction for the youngest or most nervous riders to longer trail rides for confident ones — and the standard ride times are 9:00 and 11:00 a.m., with spectacular views over Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake from the trails. The stables have operated at this location since 2018 and pride themselves on putting first-time riders at ease; bookings and gift cards are handled online.
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Oyama Zipline Adventure Park
A family-run zipline and aerial park in the forest above Oyama, open since 2011. The guided Zip Tour covers 5,300 feet of cable over 70 wooded acres, with rope bridges, a centre dismount line and three side-by-side racing lines, and takes two to three hours for anyone between 50 and 270 lb. The Aerial Obstacle Park is a high-ropes course of 27 obstacles that includes six ziplines of its own, and the Monkey Kids Play Park gives three- to eleven-year-olds a netted climbing area of their own. Private zip tours can be arranged for groups.
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Paraglide Canada
Paraglide Canada has been the Okanagan’s paragliding school and tandem operator since 2001, flying from the hills above Kalamalka Lake ten minutes from Vernon. Its flying site is at the base of King Eddy Forest Service Road off Highway 6 — the King Eddy’s Landing Field — where tandem passengers meet their certified instructor, launch from the slopes above and glide back down over the Coldstream valley with the lake laid out below. The school also runs P1/P2 and advanced courses and sells and services gear from its Haney Road office. Tandems fly from mid- to late April through the fall as weather windows allow, and the training calendar for the following spring is posted online each autumn.
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SilverStar Mountain Resort
SilverStar is the North Okanagan's four-season mountain resort above Vernon, and in winter it is a whole village of things to do rather than a single ski hill. The alpine terrain runs to 3,304 acres and 133 runs over 760 metres of vertical, served by ten lifts including the Des Schumann Summit Express gondola, with long green and blue cruisers off the front side, steep powder-filled chutes on the Putnam Creek backside and three terrain parks; on Friday and Saturday nights the lights come on for four kilometres of groomed night skiing and the Bannister Night Park at Silver Queen. The resort's My1Pass idea is what sets it apart: one day ticket or season pass unlocks seven activities — downhill, cross-country skiing on the resort's 55-kilometre half of Canada's largest daily-groomed Nordic network, 16 kilometres of snowshoe trail, 15 kilometres of fat-bike trail, skating on Brewer's Pond, tubing at Tube Town and (with a season pass) night skiing — each of which has its own page on Okanagan Roam. Volunteer Mountain Hosts lead free guided tours of the alpine and Nordic trails every morning from Town Hall, snow-cat dinners run to Paradise Camp on the backside, and the new Ravenwood cabin hosts snowshoe dinner tours. The Nordic trails open on November 20, 2026 and the alpine season runs November 27, 2026 to April 4, 2027. Summer turns the same slopes into the SilverStar Bike Park — the resort describes it as one of Canada's best downhill mountain-bike experiences, with downhill, enduro and cross-country riding, skills areas and a pump track — while walkers and trail runners have 16 km of forest and mountain trails: the easy Paradise, Mountain View, Tin Tin and Sidewinder loops out of the village, the hiking-only Silver Queen Trail, and, from the top of the Des Schumann Summit Express gondola at 1,915 metres — some 300 metres above the village — the Ridge Walk (no bikes), the Attridge Scenic Loop and the Alpine Meadows. Hikers pick up a complimentary trail day ticket at the Ticket Office; Monday to Thursday the summit is reached by the Comet Express after a gentle 20-minute walk down to the lift. The resort publishes no dog rule for its trails, and the surrounding regional district requires dogs on leash unless in a designated off-leash area. Lessons, rentals, restaurants, cafés and lodging are in the resort village.
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Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park
Skaha Bluffs is the South Okanagan's rock-climbing destination: a 554-hectare park of sun-warmed cliffs above the east side of Skaha Lake, reached from Lakeside Road up Smythe Road along Gillies Creek. Climbing is permitted only in the northern section of the park, and BC Parks warns that the trails used to reach the routes can be difficult, so this is a place for sure feet even if you never touch rope. The bluffs are essential habitat for bighorn sheep — keep your distance, they are territorial — and dogs must be leashed at all times to protect the fragile ecosystem. Mountain biking is confined to the designated routes in the Gillies Creek corridor. Pit toilets are at the parking lots, and the access-road gate opens from 7 a.m. to dusk; it is closed for the season from mid-November to mid-March.
♥ Local Favourite
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Sun Hills Riding Centre
Sun Hills Riding Centre offers guided horseback trail rides through Canada’s only desert, from its base at 4001 Golf Course Drive above Osoyoos. Rides go out in small groups on the centre’s rescued horses, winding through aromatic sagebrush with views over the vineyards, orchards and Osoyoos Lake below — an unhurried way to see the antelope-brush country that surrounds the town. Established in 2018, the centre also runs equine-guided wellness sessions. Reservations are required; riders must be at least eight years old and under 230 lb (104 kg), and the season follows the desert weather, so book ahead in summer.
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ZipZone Peachland
ZipZone strings six guided ziplines across the Deep Creek gorge above Peachland, including what it bills as the highest freestyle zipline in the Okanagan at 381 feet. Tours run in two-, four- and six-line versions, and smaller children under 70 lb can ride tandem with a guide on the Little Zippers program. Between lines there is a climbing wall, a low ropes course, games and a picnic area with barbecues, and the park takes group bookings for celebrations and corporate days. Operating since 2010, it is open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (check the site for current hours), a short drive from Kelowna and Penticton.