Spotted Lake

This rare small lake can be found nine kilometres west of Osoyoos along Highway 3 to Vancouver.

It contains one of the world’s highest known concentrations of minerals: magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts), calcium and sodium sulphates, plus eight other minerals and traces of four more, including silver and titanium.

In the hot summer sun, the water of Spotted Lake evaporates and crystallizes the minerals, forming many white-rimmed circles – shallow pools that reflect the mineral content of the water in shades of blues and greens.

But Spotted Lake has a history, tied to the Okanagan native people who revere it as a medicine lake. Ceremonial cairns – some of ancient vintage – surround the lake, and stories of the physical and spiritual healing properties derived from its unique 365 circular pools have been told by native elders through the ages.

Their name for it (Klikuk) loosely translated means the “lake of wellness,”

During WWI, Chinese labourers were employed skimming the salts from the surface of the lake.  The product was then shipped to Eastern American munitions factories. Yield is said to have reached a ton per day.

It is now jointly owned by the Federal government and the Okanagan Nations Alliance.

You’re welcome to take photos from the highway, but as it is private property please do not trespass further in.

More info:

http://www.michaelkluckner.com/bciw3spottedlake.html

http://www.syilx.org/history-spottedlake.php  (link to Okanagan Nations Alliance Spotted Lake page)