Spotted Lake

Osoyoos BC

If you take a drive along Okanagan Highway 3 from Osoyoos BC to Keremeos, you'll pass by Spotted Lake, historically a sacred lake known for it's high concentration of minerals that were believed to have healing properties.

What's most interesting about this lake, which is known to the First Nations people as Klikuk, is how it forms and changes during the hot, dry summer weather.

Saline lakes form in depressions in grassland landscapes where there is no outlet for the collected water. Where the surrounding soils have high levels of soluble minerals, increased concentrations of salts accumulate as the lakes fill with spring runoff.

During the hot, dry summers, when the rate of evaporation is higher than the rate at which water runs into the depression, the water level drops to expose the salts as rings around the edge.

As the summer heat evaporates the water small pools are formed that change in color and range from blue to green to yellow. It also results in very high concentrations of salts, titanium, calcium, sulphates and other minerals.

In addition to being used for their medicinal qualities, minerals from this lake were also used for the production of ammunition for the first World War.

Some of the hottest and driest conditions in British Columbia are found in the Southern Okanagan valley bottom of the Okanagan and Similkameen.

This lake is part of the South Okanagan Grasslands Protected Area, a geographical region that is unique to Canada. You can learn more about the desert biome, grassland plants and animals at the Osoyoos Desert Centre.

Though there is no viewing platform and no access to the land that surrounds the Spotted Lake (private property), you can see it from the highway as you drive by.

Stopping along the side of the road is not really recommended, as there is no safe parking.

It remains a sacred medicine lake of the Okanagan People. The best time to view the lake is in the summer from about June to mid September.

Follow Highway 3 from Osoyoos to Keremeos, approximately 9 km.