Why Osoyoos is Canada’s only desert

It surprises first-time visitors every year: the cactus growing wild on the hillside, the sagebrush scent after rain, the heat that feels imported from Arizona. Osoyoos sits at the northern tip of a desert system that stretches, ecologically speaking, all the way toward the Sonoran country of the American Southwest.

What makes it a desert

Rain shadow. The Cascade and Coast mountains wring the moisture out of Pacific weather before it arrives, leaving the south Okanagan with among the lowest rainfall and most sunshine hours in Canada, over 2,000 hours of sun a year. The result is Canada's driest, hottest ecosystem: the antelope-brush shrub-steppe.

Who lives here

Rare creatures found almost nowhere else in the country: burrowing owls, pygmy short-horned lizards, Great Basin spadefoot toads, and the occasional shy rattlesnake. It's one of Canada's most endangered habitats, which makes the protected pockets precious.

Where to experience it

The Osoyoos Desert Centre's boardwalk winds through protected habitat with interpretive signs, and the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre pairs the ecology with the living culture of the Osoyoos Indian Band, whose people have thrived in this landscape for thousands of years.

And the sweetest desert consequence of all: all that sun ripens the grapes and warms Canada's warmest lake, both of which you can enjoy from our courtyard.