Spotted Lake - Osoyoos, BC - British Columbia Heritage Markers on Waymarking.com

We stopped at Spotted Lake on our way home from an event. We were just amazed at the wonder of it all. If you are close to Osoyoos, this is a must see.

Spotted Lake was originally known to the First Nations of the Okanagan Valley as Ktlil'x, and it is still revered as a sacred site producing therapeutic waters. During World War I the minerals of Spotted Lake were used in manufacturing ammunition.

Some information about Spotted Lake:
Containing some of the highest levels of calcium as well as both sodium & magnesium sulphates in the world. Spotted Lake is a natural rarity with healing properties, scenic beauty, and mystic lore. The 'spots' or 'pools' are created by the concentration of mineral deposits. Colors change depending on the variable amounts of mineral types present at any given time.

This lake is set in a solid rock bowl lined with silt and mineral fragments. The lake fills during rain and run-off conditions like any other natural reservoir. Though unlike other natural lakes, the captured lake water is unable to drain, seep, or flow away. The only way water leaves is through evaporation.

Spotted Lake is on private property: however it can be viewed from Highway #3. There is a dirt road to access Spotted Lake and informational sign located at the pull out at the end of the road.

Spotted Lake
Osoyoos, British Columbia Canada

If you take a drive along Okanagan Highway 3 from Osoyoos BC to Keremeos, you'll pass by Spotted Lake, a historically sacred lake in British Columbia known for it's high concentration of minerals that were believed to have healing properties.

The lake is located in the South Okanagan Grasslands Protected Area, a geographical region that is unique to Canada.

What's most interesting about the lake, which is sacred to the Okanagan First Nations people, and known as Klikuk, a sacred medicine lake, is how it forms and changes during the hot, dry summer weather.

As with saline lakes (or an 'endorheic alkali lake'), it forms in depressions in grassland landscapes where there is no outlet for the collected water. Where the surrounding soils have high levels of soluble minerals, increased concentrations of salts accumulate as the lakes fill with spring runoff.

Some of the hottest and driest conditions in British Columbia are found in the Southern Okanagan Valley bottom of the Okanagan and Similkameen, in the Spotted Lake area.

During the hot, dry weather, when the rate of evaporation is higher than the rate at which water runs into the depression, the water level drops to expose the salts as rings around the edge. As the summer heat evaporates the natural water pools are formed that change in color and range from blue to green to yellow, depending on the type and concentration of minerals in it. It results in very high concentrations of salts, titanium, calcium, sulphates and other minerals, and some say Spotted Lake BC has the highest concentrations of minerals in the world.

In addition to being used for their medicinal qualities, minerals from the lake were also used for the production of ammunition for the first World War.
From the Okanagan Vacation Guide