Where to stay · Keremeos & the Similkameen Valley
Cathedral Lakes Lodge
You hand over your car and a Unimog does the last hour, meals included at the top.
what it is
off-grid alpine wilderness lodge (romantic / adventure)
the damage
from ~$290/person/night all-inclusive, plus $160 one-time transport
rated
★ 4.0 (86)
from Vancouver
~3.5 to 4 hours
The premise sounds like a dare. You drive four hours from Vancouver, leave your car in the free lot at base camp up the Ashnola River Road, and climb into a Unimog, a Mercedes truck built for terrain that regards roads as optional. It grinds uphill for the better part of an hour, and then you step out beside an alpine lake and realize the dare has paid off handsomely.
Canada's highest full-service lodge is not fancy, and that is rather the point. There are lodge rooms, bungalow rooms, and cabins with names like Herb Clark's, and every package includes all your meals plus the cedar hot tubs, the wood-heated sauna, and canoes, rowboats, kayaks and fishing gear. Reviewers keep saying they would go back for the cooking alone, which for a lodge you cannot drive to is quite the endorsement.
The 2023 Crater Creek wildfire shut the whole operation down, and the lodge has completed the repair work and reopened, running June 12 to October 12 in 2026. Rates run from about $290 to $330 per person per night, double occupancy, plus a one-time $160 transportation fee, with a three-night minimum. Kids aged 4 to 12 are half price, presumably because they weigh less on the Unimog.
The setting
Inside Cathedral Provincial Park at Quiniscoe Lake, high above the Similkameen Valley. Base camp sits up the gravel Ashnola River Road southwest of Keremeos; the lodge itself is reachable only by its own shuttle or a very long hike.
Getting there
From Vancouver take Hwy 1 to Hope, then Hwy 3 over Allison Pass through Manning Park and Princeton to Keremeos, roughly 3.5 to 4 hours. Continue up Ashnola River Road to base camp, where parking is free with a shuttle booking. No ferries. A car is essential; car-free does not work here.
good to know
Why it works
- Hour-long Unimog ride up to an alpine lake
- All meals included, and the food gets rave reviews
- Cedar hot tubs and a wood-heated sauna
- Canoes, rowboats, kayaks and fishing gear included
- Reopened for 2026 after the Crater Creek fire