The Kettle Valley Rail Trail (KVRT) totals 450 km in length, stretching from Midway in the east to Hope in the west. It is broken down into major sections and much smaller subsections. This section, as one heads west, is the Midway to Penticton section, which is broken into seven smaller sections, varying from 14 to 53 km. in length. The first section, Midway to Rock Creek, is 18.2 km. in length. Between Midway and Penticton the trail varies in elevation from 600 metres at Midway to 1300 metres at the Myra Canyon Summit near Kelowna.
Parking and washrooms are available at the trailhead and throughout the trail. Various facilities are available along the trail as it passes through several towns.
This trailhead is also the western terminus of the
Columbia and Western Rail Trail, which heads east to Castlegar.
The Columbia and Western Trail is 162 KM long from Castlegar, British Columbia to Midway, B.C. and travels the abandoned Canadian Pacific Boundary Subdivision with the last train going thru in 1991. In 2000 the C.P.R. donated the line to the Province of British Columbia for a recreational trail to form British Columbia's Trans-Canada Trail network.
Midway - Mile Zero of the Famous Kettle Valley Railway
The Columbia & Western completed its track into Midway in 1900 but it took until 1910 to start building the KVR. A fight had waged in parliament, in the legislature and on the tracks in Midway over which rail company should build the link from Midway to the coast - an American company, the Great Northern, or a Canadian company - the KVR. The KVR won.
The railway was completed in 1915, with regular passenger service until 1964. The Midway-Penticton regular service ended in 1973, and the Castlegar - Midway portion was abandoned in 1989. Midway Station had a station house, section house, bunkhouse, sandhouse and tower, engine house, 181,840 litre water tank and a 95,466 litre fuel supply.
From the Mile 0 Marker>