B.C. Country Roads – No. 4 Monck Provincial Park, Nicola, Quilchena, and the Douglas Lake Ranch

Early June 2020

After a restful night at Tunkwa, I rose early, had a good breakfast, and headed directly to Monck Provincial Park, located about 20 km east of Merritt on the north shore of Nicola Lake. I was hoping to get one of the very few unreserved campsites and luckily I got this great site!

Then, I was off to explore historic sites in the Nicola Valley and the beautiful open grasslands of the Nicola Plateau. I drove back towards Merritt on Monck Park Road to the junction with 5A and then turned east to travel along the south shore of Nicola Lake, enroute to tiny Quilchena. The Quilchena hotel was built in 1908 by a rancher who believed that a new CPR line would be routed through nearby Nicola. His hopes were dashed however, and the hotel was only open for nine years before closing. It reopened some forty years later, in 1958, with all of its original furnishings and fixtures intact, but with updated plumbing and heating, and five-star dining. Currently closed, I assumed because of Covid, it had a lonely and abandoned air (though the grounds were well kept), as did the nearby old-time general store and an empty farmhouse.

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I continued east on Highway 5A as it paralleled Nicola Lake to the junction with Douglas Lake Road where I made a quick stop to check out a distinctive log church and a few beautiful horses. Monck Provincial Park is almost directly across the lake from here.

Then I started on the road to Douglas Lake. Inspired by Liz Bryan’s chapter entitled “Nicola River Journey”, she describes this area perfectly: “The high plateau country east of the Nicola Valley is among B.C.’s loveliest, an undulating sweep of grassland, blue with lupines in early summer, with lakes and drifts of trees in the hollows and a great sense of space and sky.”

I agree with her wholeheartedly and hope that the following photos do some justice to her description.

Of course, my roadside stops were also rich with close-up views as well as the far-reaching ones. Even the promised lupins were there, as well as dark blue Viper’s Bugloss, or Blueweed.

Soon, I saw the Church of St. Nicholas, built in 1889, marking the beginning of the Native settlement of Spaxomin. Access to the village was closed because of Covid 19 so I was unable to drive closer. A true, Wild West event took place in a cabin near here in 1879. The notorious McLean gang (actually four teenage boys) had holed up in the cabin after shooting a police Constable near Kamloops. They surrendered after a four day siege, were taken to a jail in New Westminster, and were later hanged. Another, turn-of-the-century crime drama took place some forty or fifty kilometers away, near Chapperon Lake, when Bill Miner and his two accomplices were arrested by a possee of mounted police for having robbed a CPR train east of Kamloops. They were taken by wagon to Nicola, and then on to Kamloops for trial. But for me today, all was quiet and peaceful.

At Spaxomin, the road turned left to continue alongside Douglas Lake. Part way up the lake, I stopped to read this historic marker from 1967 that describes the origins of the Douglas Lake Cattle Company.

John Douglas had first come to B.C. in 1870 to join the gold rush, but he changed his ambitions when he encountered these wide expanses of natural rangeland, with bunchgrass “high as a horse’s belly.” Today, the Douglas Lake Cattle Company is the largest privately owned ranch in Canada and one of the largest in North America with 271,000 acres of deeded land and access to over 1,000,000 acres of crown grazing land.

At the end of the Douglas Lake, the road crossed the Nicola River which flows into the lake, and from there it was only a kilometer or two to reach the tall, western-style entry gate to the Douglas Lake home ranch. Neat, tidy, and well kept, there was a wide range of buildings, including a church, cookhouse, worker’s cabins, school, barns, workshops and machinery sheds. The attractive general store and post office have been in operation since the early 1900s.

After the ranch, Douglas Lake Road carries on, past Chapperon and Salmon Lakes and along the Salmon River, to connect with Highway 97 at Westwold. From there, one can travel south to Vernon or north to Kamloops. I decided to leave that portion of the road for another day, a good excuse for a return visit to this beautiful countryside.

On the return journey to Monck, I continued to enjoy the curving road, spectacular views, wild grasses, and big sky. I arrived at my campsite so grateful to have finally explored some of the stunning and historic Nicola Plateau. Not yet hungry for dinner, I wandered down to Monck Park’s lakefront day-use area and admired the expansive picnic area, accented with tall Douglas firs and mature Ponderosa pines, rich in colour and texture.

By the time I returned to my campsite, clouds had blown in and brought sudden rain so I cooked up a yummy dinner of ramen noodles and leftover trout under the cover my back hatch. When dinner was ready, the rain was already stopping so I ate in the open on my camp chair, overlooking the other campsites and glimpses of the lake in the distance. I read for a while after dinner, walked several loops of this family-oriented campground, and then read some more before retiring at dusk, once again so happy with my day.

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The next morning, I got an early call from a family member who needed me so I promised to cut my trip short and head home. Before leaving, I enjoyed another walk by the scenic lake front and this time I encountered a young family of marmots near their home by a section of beach.

Back on the road I made a quick stop in Nicola. Founded in the 1870s, Nicola was for a time the commercial center of the area, a role now occupied by Merritt. Few buildings remain and I had actually missed seeing Nicola the day before, on my way to Monck Park – I must have blinked! On one side of the road stands the old courthouse, built in 1913. Looking a bit rundown, the only sign of life was a marmot who had been sunning himself on the front steps and then disappeared down a hole in the porch as I approached.

Behind the courthouse was an impressive old barn, and nearby there was a country gift shop.

Across the street was a collection of small pioneer homes and the little white church of St. Andrew, built in 1876. Owned and operated by the Nicola Ranch, some of the homes have been restored and updated for use as self-catered tourist accommodation. Again, possibly because of Covid, everything was quiet and still, with not a soul around as I wandered about and admired the historic buildings, some with signs like “Harness Maker (1890)” and “Banker’s House (1906)”. The most well-kept building was the Nicola Ranch Office, located in a large and beautiful old farmhouse.

My peaceful little stop in historic Nicola was over, and I had to ready myself psychologically for the upcoming speed and traffic of the Coquihalla Highway, and after that the speed and traffic of Highway 1. All went well and I was soon safely home, but it wasn’t long before I was once again reading Liz Bryan’s book and planning another trip along the wonderful country roads of B.C.