The latest landslide to impact traffic on Hwy 97 -- just south of Okanagan Lake Provincial Park, much like the notorious January 2019 landslide -- once again exposes the frightening fragility of the only paved, direct route through the valley between Penticton and Kelowna.
It happened Monday mid-afternoon and the critical artery has been completely shut down since. As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, DriveBC says all lanes remain closed "pending geotechnical assessment."
Judging by the photos taken by drivers in the area at the time of the slide Monday and posted on social media, some of the boulders appear to be the size of small cars.
It could be a while 'til this one gets sorted out.
PentictonNow attempted to get within camera range of the site Tuesday morning but likely would have been better off renting a boat.
The main roadblock going north is at least five kilometers from the site at Jones Flat Road, the same intersection as Back Door Winery and Big Apple Fruit Stand. And the land in the area of the slide is just about as rugged as it gets in the South Okanagan. Add in wildfire smoke and there was just no way to get a visual on the incident from our vantage points.
The big question going forward is what to do if you absolutely need to get from Penticton (or anywhere from Summerland south) to Kelowna (or anywhere from Peachland north). Or vice-versa.
For starters, you should forget about any solution within the Okanagan Valley no matter how appealing they look on the GPS.
That includes Garnet Valley Road, which runs north from Summerland about a kilometer west of Hwy 97 and gets to within a few kilometers of Peachland before dissolving into a rough hiking trail that's barely passable on a mountain bike, never mind a motorized vehicle.
One of the first things the District of Summerland did Monday post-slide was place signage on the paved section of the route instructing drivers looking for a Peachland detour to look elsewhere. They're right.
Also not recommended by DriveBC are the two extremely rural routes that some used or attempted to use (many got stuck) after the sizable January 2019 slide.
One is the "201 Forest Service Road," a windy dirt thoroughfare that runs between Okanagan Lake and Hwy 33 (Carmi, Beaverdell), east of Okanagan Lake. The other is an equally challenging route on the west side of the lake that includes the wild Princeton Summerland Road.
Currently, Drive BC says there is "no detour available," meaning they don’t want detouring drivers on any of those roads, likely because they're considered dangerous in their present condition.
If that situation changes, we'll let you know.
And that leaves one DriveBC-approved option aside from hopping a plane: The long and inconvenient (270-plus kilometers, three-plus hours) but paved and relatively safe "Hwy 3A-Hwy 3-Hwy 5A-Hwy 97C route" that pops up every time we see a major landslide.
You'll drive to Kaleden via Hwy 97, Kaleden to Keremeos via Hwy 3A, Keremeos to Princeton via Hwy 3, Princeton to Aspen Grove via Hwy 5A, and finally Aspen Grove to Kelowna via Hwy 97C (the Okanagan Connector). Do everything in reverse if you're headed south from Kelowna and area.
More on the latest Hwy 97 slide as information becomes available at our main incident page here.
