Sun capital of BC where the North and South Thompson rivers meet in a sagebrush ponderosa-pine plateau
Kamloops sits at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers in BC's dry interior — Canada's Tournament Capital, with a high-desert character of sagebrush hills and ponderosa pine that looks nothing like the coast. The nearby Thompson-Okanagan wine country, rivers for rafting and fishing, and 2,000+ sunshine hours per year make it a legitimate stop in its own right.
The Secwépemc (Shuswap) people have lived at the confluence of the Thompson rivers for thousands of years — the name Kamloops derives from the Secwépemc word Tk'emlúps, meaning 'where the rivers meet'. The North West Company established a fur-trading post here in 1812, later absorbed by the Hudson's Bay Company; the arrival of the transcontinental CPR railway in 1885 transformed the trading post into a regional centre.