When the summer heats up the valley, some of the highland lakes make a nice retreat for exploration, a workout, and some paddling.   Two lakes worth visiting are McGillivray Lake and Morrisey Lake.     The simplest route is to drive to Sun Peaks and follow the main road, turning up onto Sun Peaks Drive, then onto the McGillivray Lake Forest Service Road.   This road is snowed-in the winter, but it is quite a good access road for late-spring, summer, and fall.   Follow the road as it climbs around the resort, then around the cross-country ski system.    This same road connects all the way towards Chase.

Along the way, a side road goes east to Morrisey Lake.   There are two small campsites to launch a boat, camp, fish, or just picnic.    It is a medium-sized lake, but in scenic forested bowl.

Not far to the south is the larger McGillivray Lake.   Drive down to the McGillivray Lake Outpost where there is parking, a dock, a boat launch, and outhouses.

It is an easy launch from this spot.   The lake is about 2km long.   There are two large islands to explore, with a landing spot on the south tip of the northern island.   Two bays are full of water lilies, loons dive for fish, fish jump with a new hatch, and many birds circled overhead.

On the way back to town, take the road south down, winding through the hills down to Neskonlith Lake.   On our last trip we saw deer, a black bear, two badgers, and hillsides of wildflowers.

The road winds down the hill, passes the west end of Neskonlith Lake, and comes down to the Shuswap Road.   Follow the road back to Pritchard, and cross the bridge to the Trans Canada Highway.