Experience the best of Kamloops

Kamloops lies where the North Thompson and South Thompson rivers join, in the dry interior of British Columbia. The hills around are golden grassland dotted with sagebrush and pine, a sharp contrast with the wet coast to the west, and the city grew as a fur-trade post and later a railway and ranching centre.

The Secwépemc Museum and Heritage Park tells of the Secwépemc people, who have lived in this region for thousands of years, and a wildlife park nearby shelters native animals. Sun Peaks, a mountain village, offers skiing to the north-east, and Wells Gray Provincial Park, farther north, has Helmcken Falls, which drops about 140 metres.

Kamloops trout, a rainbow trout of the local lakes, is famous among anglers, and the ranches around the city raise beef. Orchards in the warmer valleys of the southern interior supply cherries and apples, ripened by hot, dry summers.