7.5 Acres, Bare Land - Westbridge, BC

This 7.5-acre lot offers sweeping mountain views of the Okanagan Highland to the west, the Beaverdell Range to the east, and a narrow view of the West Kettle River. Several access points are available to the river nearby, perfect to cool off in the summer. The nearby Wild Horse Forest Service Road provides access to miles of off-road adventures. Conkle Lake is nearby for great fishing, boating, and windsurfing. Big White Ski Resort and Grandby Provincial Park are within a 1.5-hour drive for your winter adventures.

The property is fenced along the highway and has a driveway. The drilled well does not have records available and would need to be tested for quantity and quality (does not have an ID tag). There are some building materials left on site that will not be removed. Without any zoning, this conveniently allows the owner to develop as they wish.

Lot 3 Highway 33 - Westbridge, BC

The entrance to the property comes up fast on Highway 33 and is easy to overshoot. If coming from the north, the property is on the left 2.7 km from the north Blyth-Rhone Road junction. If coming from the south, the property is on the right 3 km from the Rhone Rest Stop.

Driving Distances from Rhone

Rock Creek: 21 km
Beaverdell: 28 km
Osoyoos: 72 km
Grand Forks: 96 km
Kelowna and International Airport: 115 km
Midway USA border crossing: 41 km

Lush green forests and open meadows surround the community of Rhone/Westbridge. This is a land made for outdoor adventure. In the spring, you’ll be treated to waves of colorful wildflowers. During the summer hike and bike to your heart’s content. Come fall, the colors return, only this time in reds and yellows of larch and poplar trees. It is the perfect spot for a picnic or an outdoor adventure vacation.

Just across the West Kettle River bridge is the Christian Valley, a semi-arid region that receives substantial snowfalls in the winter. You can explore Christian Valley by driving northeast from Westbridge along a section of paved road that changes to a gravel forestry road. Just to the north, the Beaverdell Community is the closest to stock up on basic groceries, dine at the local restaurants, and a fuel up at the gas station. Rock Creek to the south offers a more limited source for retail however does have two gas stations.

Outdoor fun is the name of the game in this part of Boundary Country. The Kettle Valley portion of the Trans Canada Trail is just south of Westbridge, where it follows the Kettle River. As you travel north on the trail, you’ll come to Rhone, approximately 7 km from Westbridge. Here you’ll find Paul Lautard’s War Memorial and a caboose of the Blythe-Rhone Road on the left.

There’s some great fishing in these parts. On either side of Westbridge, you can cast your line and hook some rainbow trout in the Kettle and West Kettle Rivers.

There’s some excellent windsurfing at Conkle Lake Provincial Park. Motorized watercraft are restricted to 10 hp on this 3 km long lake, leaving the waters calm and peaceful. The park features a beautiful white sandy beach and a boat launch surrounded by western larch and lodge pine. The park campground features a trail that goes to the lake’s end and follows the shoreline. It's also a great lake to toss your line out for rainbow trout which are annually stocked.

The Kettle River Recreation Area has 442 acres to explore—perfect to canoe, cycle, hike, and fish. The river provides a refreshing swim and the end of a hot day—an idyllic place to recreate and camp. Large RVs will appreciate the pull-through sites. In the winter, strap on your snowshoes and explore area trails in this winter wonderland. This area receives moderate snowfall, and the recreation area is a good starting point to cross-country or snowshoe the Rail Trail.

Big White Ski Resort is about 1.5 hours to the northeast, offering not only extensive ski and snowboard terrain but a host of other activities. Tubing, snowmobile tours, skating, snowshoeing, dog sledding, horse-drawn sleigh rides, and cross-country skiing round out those looking for some winter fun. In the summer, plenty of hiking and mountain biking trails, sightseeing lift tickets, and playing disc golf can round out the day.

Granby Park is a wilderness area popular with hunters, horseback riders, and snowmobilers. It is one of the last intact watersheds in the Southern Interior and access is limited.

The lower drainage of this park includes old-growth stands of cedar and hemlock forest. The forests offer hiking and fishing for experienced hikers with good outdoor skills while the grassy meadows at higher elevations offer year-round recreational opportunities and form high-quality grizzly habitat.

The intact watershed of the Granby River is a unique feature in the heavily developed Southern Interior. The grassland meadows from an old burn are rare and are valuable as a habitat for grizzly bears, deer, and elk.

Rhone, a former railway siding four miles west of Westbridge and 18 miles east of Beaverdell, was first mentioned in the Kelowna Record of June 10, 1915, on a list of names given to stations on the Kettle Valley Railway from Midway to Merritt.

The name was chosen by the Saunier family who moved there around 1909. Martial and Victorie and their ten children hailed from Saint-Remy, in the Rhône-Alps region of southeastern France. Their son Eugene came to Canada first in 1904 to scout for a new home. He tried Alberta, where he worked on farms and in coal mines, but the Prairies didn’t appeal to him, so after four years he continued to BC, arriving in Midway in the spring of 1908. He knew at once that the Kettle Valley was the place he had been looking for and his next letter home was full of enthusiasm about the Kettle Valley country.

His brother and sister arrived that fall and went to Isaac Fillmore’s farm near Westbridge, which Eugene rented for the family. This was the place that would become Rhone. The rest of the family came in May 1909.

49°14'38.72"N and 119° 0'21.13"W