New Denver, British Columbia

August 12, 2025

The general region in which we stayed the past several days is known as the Kootenays, and we have found it to be one of our absolute favorite parts of Canada so far. Crystal clear lakes, endless mountains, sleepy little towns, and no crowds made for one of the most scenic and relaxing experiences we have had so far in our travels. Of course, the near-perfect weather may have been an influencing factor, particularly after all the rain we have had recently.

Our trip to get here was gorgeous and involved a mandatory (but free) ferry ride that turned out to be unexpectedly scenic and a rather pleasant experience.

Usually we avoid ferries, but this one was free and there was no other way to get to where we wanted to go (without a 6-hour detour)

The ferry was plenty big to accommodate us and even larger vehicles

The ride across the lake was so pretty, we felt like we were on a paid boat excursion

We had an amazing campsite in the cute little town of New Denver, right on Slocan Lake and surrounded by the Selkirk Mountains.

We spent many of the days riding the numerous rails-to-trails in the area, and they each had something different to offer. The first trail took us through the town of New Denver and up and into the mountains.

One of the cute B&Bs in New Denver

It was recommended to dismount at this rock-slide area

Julie would have been a bit nervous to ride her bike this close to the drop-off

Happily, this drop-off was nicely fenced off

People were crossing the river with their bikes using this cart contraption, but we were about ready to turn around anyway, so we didn't bother

Rick was braver than Julie riding along this edge

Julie actually did ride her bike on this trail, despite the pictures showing the contrary 😉

The second trail we took went north of New Denver and paralleled Slocan Lake.

A dock at a small public beach --the water looked so clear and inviting (but it was cold!)

For our third ride, we drove a half hour south to a trail going through the Slocan River valley.

The trailhead in the cute little town of Slocan

Fancy outhouse

We stopped frequently for the numerous thimbleberry patches along the way

This bench was built like mini-bleachers to get you high enough to see the view

View from the mini-bleachers

We found us our own private beach on the river to hang out at for a while

Funny bumper sticker (Could that be Gustav? 😉)

We ended up driving to the cute town of Nelson (almost 1 1/2 hours away) for Mass on Saturday, so we decided to make a night of it and go out to dinner at Broken Hill, a local BBQ joint. It was quite good!

The scenery along the drive was fantastic

Dinner at the Broken Hill was a fun time

This was the most upscale-looking cannabis store we think we have ever seen

Another day, we took a short walk from our campground to the little local Japanese garden.

The rest of our time was spent hanging out at the lake (Julie took a dip in the inviting but cold water) and wishing we could stay longer. This might be a place to revisit sometime in the future!

A rather large toad Rick discovered one night

Too bad we can't stay longer!

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