Outdoor Destinations in Penticton, BC

Barefoot Beach Resort

Barefoot Beach Resort is where you camp without a tent: a village of thirteen yurts — studios up to two-bedrooms, each with a kitchenette — on a private stretch of Skaha Lake beach at the south end of Penticton, with ordinary campsites for those who bring their own canvas and the Kettle Valley Rail Trail running out the back gate toward Okanagan Falls. It is the Okanagan's best-known glamping address and the easy answer for a group with mixed ideas about roughing it.

Campbell Mountain

Campbell Mountain is the hill with the radio towers on the east side of Penticton, and its compact trail network is the closest mountain biking to downtown: trail-mapping sites chart about 46 trails and 51 km, everything from cross-country loops to downhill lines, including the original course from the BC Summer Games. Discover Naramata describes a mix of singletrack, doubletrack and roads over rock, gravel, sand and roots, with something for everyone from easy rides to technical challenges, and it is a popular place to learn to mountain bike. The Penticton and Area Cycling Association maintains the trails. There is currently no trail signage, so ride with a trail app; the network is small enough that getting turned around is rarely serious. Riders commonly park at the Reservoir Road (Red Gate) access or on Spiller Road above the landfill entrance; parking costs are not published, and no dog or e-bike rules are published for the area.

Carmi Recreational Trails

The Carmi Recreational Trails are a loop network on the plateau east of Penticton, maintained as a recreation site by Recreation Sites and Trails BC, with the Okanagan View Loop as the main outing: 7 km of packed gravel rated moderate, with a warming hut, benches and a vista point at its northwest corner. The Carmi Loop is an easier 3 km circuit. The trails are used for hiking and mountain biking in summer and snowshoeing in winter. The Garnet Fire Interpretive Site parking lot — 6.2 km up Carmi Avenue and 2.3 km on Beaver Dell Road — has an outhouse, a kiosk and two picnic tables, and there are no fees; a second access is 4 km up the Ellis Forest Service Road. The provincial recreation-site rules ask you to keep pets quiet and under control at all times; no leash rule is published for this site.

Coyote Cruises – Penticton Channel Float

Floating the Penticton channel is the city’s signature summer ritual: a lazy 7 km drift down the river channel that links Okanagan Lake to Skaha Lake, with the sun overhead, ducks alongside and half of Penticton floating with you. Coyote Cruises runs the operation from 215 Riverside Drive at the Okanagan Lake end — single and multi-person tube rentals, larger “party island” floats for groups, dry storage for your things and regular shuttle buses that bring you back to the start when you climb out at the Skaha end. Visit Penticton calls it a must-do for the whole family; budget three to four hours for the full length depending on the current, wear sunscreen, bring water and do not tie floats together. The season opens at the end of June and runs through the summer into September.

Ellis Ridge & Canyon View Trails

Above Penticton on the Carmi side, the Garnet Fire Interpretive Site is the trailhead for two short viewpoint walks managed by Recreation Sites and Trails BC: the Ellis Ridge Trail, 3.5 km round trip out and back and easy to moderate, and the Canyon View Trail, a 2 km easy loop, both with lookouts over Penticton and the Ellis Creek canyon. There are cliff edges, so keep children close. The main lot is 6.2 km up Carmi Avenue and then 2.3 km right on Beaver Dell Road, with an outhouse, an information kiosk and two picnic tables; no fires or camping, and no fees. A second access is 4 km up the Ellis Forest Service Road. The site is also used for mountain biking and snowshoeing. The provincial recreation-site rules ask you to keep pets quiet and under control at all times; no leash rule is published for this site.

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.

Idleback Lake Recreation Site

Fifty minutes up into the Carmi hills from Penticton, Idleback Lake is the free campground locals keep for themselves: 21 well-spaced sites on the north shore under a canopy of larch that turns gold in October, a cartop launch on an electric-motor lake with a one-trout limit, and the kind of silence you cannot buy on Skaha. It is user-maintained, so bring water and take out everything; weekends and holidays fill, weekdays rarely do.

KVR Trail – Skaha Lake (Penticton to Okanagan Falls)

The south spur of the Kettle Valley Rail Trail follows the west shore of Skaha Lake from the Skaha Lake end of Penticton to Okanagan Falls — 13 km one way of well-maintained packed gravel with a few sandy spots, flat and easy, with the lake beside you the whole way. Riders pick up the trail at the far end of Wright’s Beach Camp, off Skaha Lake Road, and roll south past Banbury Green to Kaleden, where the 1910 Kaleden Hotel — one of the first buildings in the village with electric light and running water — stands beside the trail at Kaleden Hotel Park, and Pioneer Park offers beach, washrooms and parking for a break or a shorter out-and-back. The route continues past Ponderosa Point to Okanagan Falls. This is a different corridor from the KVR along the Naramata Bench north of town. Parking costs are not published for the trailheads.

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.

McLaren Park Arena

McLaren Park Arena is Penticton's go-to public-skating rink, open for skating from October to mid-March and on Saturdays through the rest of the year, with a program for every kind of skater. Open Public Skate is the classic loop; Family Skate keeps a section for the littlest (children seven and under skate with a guardian); Adult Only Skate (18+) is the relaxed session; and Lap Skate (8+) is for fitness, with direction changes to keep it honest. Hockey players get non-contact Drop-In Hockey for 16-and-over and a 55+ session, both in full gear, and toddlers get their start at Preschool Stick 'N Puck for ages 1 to 5 with a parent, gloves, a caged CSA helmet and a stick. Single admission is $5.50 for adults 19 to 59, $4.50 for youth 13 to 18 and seniors 60 to 74, $3.50 for children 7 to 12 and $2.25 for preschoolers, or $14 for a family, and skate rentals are $4.25 ($3.25 for preschoolers). Helmets are strongly recommended for skating and required with a face cage for hockey players under 18. Session times are posted on the City's online booking system.

Munson Mountain

Munson Mountain is home to the giant PENTICTON sign and to the city's easiest big view: from the top, the panorama takes in Penticton, Okanagan Lake and the hills beyond, with photo opportunities in every direction. The walk from the parking area is only about 1 km round trip and suitable for all ages, so it fits between a winery visit and dinner. Take the access road off Middle Bench Road North, then turn onto Munson Mountain Road to reach the parking area at the base. The path is packed gravel, and dogs are welcome on leash, as in most City of Penticton parks.

Oxbow RV Resort

Oxbow is Penticton's in-town RV park on the Skaha side: 68 full-hookup sites with 30-amp power, water and sewer, six of them pull-throughs, on paved lanes under shade trees a few minutes from Skaha Beach, the channel float and the Okanagan River Channel path. It is a short-stay park for travelling RVers rather than a residential resort — there are no tent sites — with clean washrooms and coin showers, coin laundry, free Wi-Fi and a rental trailer for anyone arriving without their own rig. Small pets are welcome on the sites with restrictions (but not in the rental trailer), the office runs long hours through the summer, and the park closes for the winter from mid-October to the beginning of March. Book online or by phone (250-770-8147, [email protected]).

Penticton Boat Rentals

Two lakes, one town: rent a surf boat, pontoon or WaveRunner and spend the day on Skaha or Okanagan Lake, or book a captained charter and just relax.

Penticton Ikeda Japanese Garden

A quiet Japanese garden on Penticton's Okanagan Lake waterfront, with koi-filled ponds, graceful bridges and plantings that burst into bloom each April and May. It's a lovely pause on a lakeside stroll near the S.S. Sicamous.

Penticton Outdoor Skating Rink (Gyro Park)

Penticton's free outdoor rink sits in Gyro Park at the foot of Martin Street, a short walk from the Okanagan Lake beach and the downtown cafés, and in the run-up to Christmas the park's holiday light display — up from early December to late January — makes an evening skate here genuinely magical. The rink is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily when the weather allows and costs nothing; it is a family-skating rink, so leave the hockey sticks at home, and there are no rentals, so bring your own skates and helmet. City crews may be on the ice for maintenance during opening hours, and warm spells close it without much notice, so treat it as a bonus on a cold, clear day rather than a guarantee. For a scheduled skate or rentals, McLaren Park Arena on King Street is the indoor alternative.

Pier Water Sports

Pier Water Sports is Penticton’s lakefront rental counter on Okanagan Beach at 185 Lakeshore Drive West, and by Visit Penticton’s account nowhere else in the city lets you rent as many different kinds of watercraft in one place. For a quiet outing there are single and double kayaks and stand-up paddleboards to launch straight from the beach; for a bigger day there are jet skis and double-decker pontoon boats with waterslides for a whole group. Rentals run by the hour with holiday surcharges, and the location puts you a short walk from the Peach concession, the SS Sicamous and the rest of the Okanagan Lake waterfront.

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

South Beach Gardens RV Park

South Beach Gardens is Penticton's big family park — well over 200 sites across the road from Sudbury and Skaha beaches, most with full hookups, a clubhouse and the kind of tight-knit rows that fill with the same families every July. It is also the only campground in the city that stays open through winter, with heated washrooms and winterized sites for anyone chasing the Okanagan's mild off-season. Sites along the west edge back onto Highway 97; book toward the lake side for quiet.

Splash BC Floating Water Park – Penticton

Splash BC’s Penticton water park floats off Okanagan Beach at the north end of town, where the city meets Okanagan Lake: a full-scale inflatable adventure course of towers, slides, climbers, balance beams, monkey bars and a sprint runway built to end in a spectacular splash, for kids, teens, families and anyone who wants to test their balance. It is open to ages five and up, with children aged five to seven accompanied on the park by a supervising adult (19+), and Penticton is the only location with a separate Kidz Zone for ages three to seven. A day pass ($34) gives all-day come-and-go access; an evening pass ($24) covers 5 to 7 p.m. The park runs through the summer season on one of the busiest beaches in the South Okanagan.

Three Blind Mice Trail Network

The Three Blind Mice trail network spreads across the benchland above Penticton toward Naramata, overlooking Okanagan Lake, and is the South Okanagan’s best-known mountain-bike area: Visit Penticton counts more than 80 trails, and trail-mapping sites chart over 100 of them, winding through ponderosa pine, rock bluffs and grassland from intermediate singletrack to expert technical lines. The core of the network is a City of Penticton natural park at 1400 Riddle Road, and the Penticton and Area Cycling Association looks after the trails. Riders commonly start from the Poplar Grove parking area off Naramata Road; parking costs are not published. Close by, beside the KVR Trail at 1194 Poplar Grove Road, the City’s asphalt pump track gives riders of all ages a loop of rollers and berms to practise on. Trail signage is limited, so carry a trail app, and note that no official e-bike or dog rules are published for the network.

Wright's Beach Camp

Wright's Beach Camp is the one campground in Penticton where your site can be on the sand: a long-established family park at the south end of town with its own beach on Skaha Lake, waterfront sites for RVs, trailer rentals for anyone arriving without one, and the beaches and playgrounds of Skaha Lake Park next door. It is open year-round, which makes it the snowbird favourite in spring and fall, and it fills quickly for the summer; the highway runs along two sides, so ask for a lakeside site if quiet matters more than convenience.

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