A walk in Myra Canyon, BC, Canada

Ever since I moved to Kelowna, I have been hearing about Myra Canyon a lot. Its a very popular weekend spot for the people of Kelowna. One fine weekend just in time before the onset of the heat wave in British Columbia, me and my friends decided to check it out. 

Myra Canyon is a part of the Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park in the Okanagan east of Kelowna. The main attraction of this place is the railway trestles that transverse this canyon. Back in the 1915 to 1960s there used to be a railway line running through this canyon. Called the Kettle Valley Railway, a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, this railway ran from Midway to Hope. During it's construction the builders faced a big hurdle when they hit the Myra Canyon section but they more than met this challenge. Now a National Historic Site of Canada, the plaque there reads that it was a Canadian engineering achievement and the completion of this section of the railway provided a vital link between the east coast of Canada and the southern interior BC. There are a total of 18 trestles and 2 tunnels here. 

Places which mix history and natural beauty are always a delight for me. So I had to visit this place. So a weekend Thivya, Divya and myself finally made a plan to go. We took a Taxi and went to the Ruth Station Taxi lot which is one end of the Myra Trail. The other end is called the Myra Station. Below is a helpful map of the trail from the Myratrestles website.

There are remnants of the Ruth railway station here beside which the trail runs. The trail is actually where the tracks used to run. They have been removed and a walkable and cyclable route has been built. We walked on this path just talking and enjoying the sunshine. We finally hit the first trestle after maybe an hour and a half of walking. We took pics here and just enjoyed the views around. We continued walking and covered till the 8th trestle where we finally decided to head back. Sadly we couldn't go till the first tunnel as we were getting tired and since we had no means of transportation and were relying on calling a taxi we did not want to take a chance. We were back at the Ruth Station Parking Lot by 2pm and thankfully we got a taxi to go back home.

Overall, Myra Canyon is a good place to do some leisurely strolling and biking. This was more like a test visit for us and we plan to bike the entire way next time.