We camped at Haynes Point Provincial Park to do some paddling in the South Okanagan area. Osoyoos (“narrowing of the waters”) Lake is 18 km long with 2/3 north of the border and the south end in the United States. Haynes Point is one of the “narrowing” points with a shallow passage on the east side of the lake. South of Haynes Point the International Border is only 2 km away. US Customs has live cameras on the lake, patrol boats, and aerial coverage, although we saw none of that over the 3 days we were on the lake. One kilometer to the north is the Town of Osoyoos. To get to the rest of Osoyoos Lake (the north end), we paddled under the Main Street Bridge.
Our campsite was right on the end of the point with our own beach.
The dry, desert-like hills surrounding Osoyoos Lake invited some future exploration on foot.
I paddled down to the border on the east side then along the watery border where there were some anchored buoys marking the boundary in the middle of the lake and then over to the west shoreline.
On the west side was a short road with red pylons, right below the vehicle border crossing.
I was amused that there was a flock of Canada geese on the Canadian side, but none on the US side. The to-the-border-paddle-loop back to the campsite was 7 km so I paddled around Haynes Point into the harbour too.
On another day we paddled north through the harbour, under the Main Street Bridge, and up the west shore of the lake on a 9 km paddle. We were interested in the rocky and open-forested slopes of Anarchist Mountain Protected Area on the east side, noting it for another day of exploration in the area.
There were a number of geese, ducks, loons, eagles, herons, osprey, swallows, blackbirds, and other birds on the lake, including this flock of ducklings.
To paddle the whole lake is too long (40 km) for just two days so we will leave the north end at least for another visit.