SMILING OTTER WILDERNESS ADVENTURES

ABOVE ALL ELSE, OTTERS LOVE TO PLAY.
IT IS OUR GOAL TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU!

The name of our company says it all! Our company is about pure joy and exhilaration in a wilderness environment. Play is a powerful tool in relaxation and education. Since beginning our kayak and canoe programs we have striven to keep the fun and joy levels as high as possible while maintaining exceedingly high levels of professionalism and safety.

IT IS YOUR VACATION. COME AND BUILD CONFIDENCE, EXPERIENCE NATURE IN ALL ITS GLORY AND REJUVENATE YOUR SOUL:

My wife and I have spent most of a lifetime frolicking in the rivers like otters, roaming the rugged mountains like goats and allowing our spirits to fly like eagles. We would like to impart our love of adventure and our appreciation of nature with you! Smiling Otter has been operating since 1994. We presently offer a range of activities:

Smiling Otter Wilderness Adventures Ltd. is located in Slocan, British Columbia. Slocan is:

                  50 minutes from Nelson BC.

                  50 minutes from Castlegar BC.

                  1 1/4 hours from Nakusp BC.

	          4 hours from Spokane, Washington

	          7 hours from Calgary, Alberta

	          8 hours from Vancouver, BC.

Smiling Otter can provide you with wilderness Adventure tours Our home and the center of activity for Smiling Otter is the scenic Slocan Valley, a spectacular mix of serene wilderness and stunning pastoral settings. The valley is ringed with spectacular rugged alpine parks and wilderness areas

We have chosen the Kootenays as our home and base of operations for a myriad of reasons. Among them are; a relaxed lifestyle, the wide range of recreational activities, accessible wilderness and historic cultural opportunities (ie. Ghost towns ...).

Three rugged mountain ranges merge to dominate the topography of the West Kootenays. Large, wild rivers and fjord-like lakes thread their way through steep-sided, lush, green valleys. The unimaginable tectonic forces which formed the mountains of the Kootenays laced the cracks and crevices with gold and silver. These treasures were discovered early in the cultural history of the West Kootenays. Late in the 1800s new claims and mining towns sprang up and populations swelled rapidly. Towns flourished and died in roughly 30 years leaving a web of trails, roads and ghost towns throughout the Kootenays. This network has made for some of the most accessible back country recreation in North America.

This combination of water, mountains and accessibility is why Smiling Otter is located in the West Kootenays and especially the Slocan Valley.

The "Halls of Valhalla" (Valhalla Provincial Park) which is located on the doorstep of Smiling Otter's base of operations brings to mind the parallels of modern recreation and the epic adventures of ancient Celtic warriors.