Ellison Provincial Park

Ellison Provincial Park rewards the drive south of Vernon with a different kind of Okanagan Lake day: multiple beaches with buoyed swim areas, a playground for the kids, and around 50 picnic tables plus a picnic shelter to spread out at. Otter Bay is Western Canada’s only freshwater dive park, so divers share the park with swimmers, and there is canoeing, hiking and fishing on top of that. Flush toilets and showers are on site, but there is no boat launch and no lifeguards. Sandy Beach is the park’s pet beach; dogs are not allowed on the other beaches. The season runs roughly April 1 to October 12, and the beaches are about a half-kilometre walk from the parking lot. Ellison is also a campground and a viewpoint park: 71 sites (61 reservable, 10 first-come) with a hot-shower building, spring-water taps and fire rings, and more than six kilometres of trail along the rocky headlands with panoramic vistas of Okanagan Lake north to Spallumcheen and south to Fintry.