A search on Google Maps shows that “Silver Lake” is probably the most over-used names for lakes. Even “Silver Lake Provincial Park” is not unique, as there’s one with the same name in Ontario! We visited the Silver Lake Provincial Park situated just 12km southwest of Hope BC in mid September.

The park is quite small and rustic, with only 25 campsites and a small, undeveloped lake with a beautiful mountain backdrop. It’s accessible by a poorly-maintained, partially-paved, mostly gravel 6km road with pot holes. We managed with our rear-drive sedan, but it’s a fairly anxiety-provoking drive.

Syéxw Chó:leqw Adventure Park

Before we got to Silver Lake, we took a small detour and checked out the Syéx̱w Chó:leqw Adventure Park, located 12km west of Hope on Highway 7.

The park is located on the traditional land and territory of Sq’ewá:lxw First Nation, and it features many interesting wood carvings and informative plaques. The main attractions are a well appointed playground, a small pump track, and several beginner-friendly mountain biking loops.

Silver Lake Provincial Park

After a couple of hours of fun at the Adventure Park, we headed to Silver Lake.

The drive in was remarkably sketchy. The gravel road was in a moderately bad shape, but what’s even worse were the piles of garbage, abandoned cars, and boarded-up houses covered in graffiti along the way. These sights significantly detracted from the beautiful Silverhope Creek.

Once we got to the Provincial Park, we felt much more at ease. It’s the usual clean, flat, tree-covered sites that we are familiar with. Having an onsite park operator was also reassuring. A friendly, Santa-looking operator checked us in and sold us some firewood ($12/bundle).

The campground was quite small, with 25 sites located on either side of a single lane that leads down slope to the lake. The sites were of decent sizes, quite adequate for 2 cars and 2 tents. For water, there was a hand pump that was heavy to operate. My dad noticed that the ground water came out a bit yellowish, so we opted to boil the water and bought a case of bottled water from Hope.

We came with several of our camping friends. Matt and Shelly are quite experienced and have gone to places we have yet to visit. Kim and Andrew were new to camping this year, but they took on the challenge of shoulder season camping in a rustic campground like champs. Grandpa came out on the spur of the moment when another family had to cancel due to viral illness. The kids, as usual, had a blast camping with other kids, and the campfires were their favourite past time.

The adults had a great time too, enjoying fireside chats, late night noodles, and wine-fueled happy hours.

Paddling Silver Lake

The early autumn mornings were starting to get chilly, so I dusted off my dry suit and went for an early morning paddle around Silver Lake before the kids woke up. The lake was super calm and the mountain back drop was quite nice.

It only took 40 mins to paddle 3km around the lake.

My dad came down and enjoyed a cup of morning tea by the lake as well.

After breakfast, the kids and more boaters arrived. Fishing is allowed, but for catch-and-release only.

In the afternoon, Matt convinced Andrew to try his paddleboard. The Aqua Marina monster tracks surprisingly straight (much straighter than Body Glove Performer 11) for a board of its width and price point of $449.99 on sale, but the fin is a little tricky to install.

There was a small, over-grown trail that starts from the Silver Lake boat ramp. It’s an out-and-back trail that doesn’t lead anywhere. Local fishermen informed us that bears used to frequent the area. We took our bikes to investigate but we didn’t get very far.

Othello Tunnel

We loved walking through the beautiful Othello Tunnel, so we were eager to bring our friends to check it out on this trip. It was closed for nearly 3 years after the tunnels and trestles sustained extensive damage during an atmospheric river event in 2021.

We noticed the first tunnel was quite heavily fortified with concrete. The first tunnel was long and fun for the kids, but the walk was abruptly cut short at the second tunnel.

We hope they would reopen the remaining 2 tunnels and reconnect the Hope-Nicola Valley Trail, because the later sections were the most spectacular.

After we turned back from the tunnels, we lingered at the rocky river for quite some time.

Kawkawa Lake

After we checked out of our campsite, we visited Kawkawa Lake park before heading home. It’s a small, round lake which would take about 3km to circumnavigate. The municipal park has a boat ramp, washroom, picnic tables, a floating dock, and a playground. It looked inviting for a paddle, but we only had time for a picnic lunch.

During our short trip around Hope this time, we discovered a cute little 2nd-hand bookstore called Baker’s Books that sells all their used books for $2. I think we will be treasure hunting here every time we stop by.

We also noted a few points of interest that we should explore further:

• the private Coquihalla Campground looked inviting and it’s located right in town but still had dense forest cover and river access
• Hope Bike Park looked pretty intimidating from the road but I wonder if there are more moderate pump tracks too
• Lake of the woods is supposed to be another beautiful small lake for paddleboarding

Camping at Silver Lake Provincial Park was nice but the poorly maintained gravel road was a bit of a deterrent for making frequent excursions. The small lake was clean and beautiful though, so one could happily spend a 2-night weekend stay at camp.