Beaver Guest Ranch

The Beaver Guest Ranch is a registered tourism business on 10 acres near Lone Butte, and it holds tenure to access crown land for horseback riding — the piece that cannot simply be bought elsewhere.

Guests book almost entirely through the ranch’s own website, which ranks well and is easy to find. Beyond that it works with several European travel agencies and appears in the MarcoPolo and DuMont travel guides. Clients come mainly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which makes German-speaking service a real advantage. It has taken a holidaycheck.de award in two consecutive years.

The offer to guests is a package rather than a room: two beds per room, breakfast, lunch and non-alcoholic drinks, and activities across horseback riding, canoeing, boating, fishing and mountain biking. More than 60 couples have married on the island on Deka Lake, on horseback, or at the wood chapel nearby. The season runs mid-May to mid-October and the listing describes the revenue as adequate for a family household.

The log home was built in 1997 and finished in 2002: 5,640 square feet over two levels with completely separate entrances. The 2,583 square foot guest area on the lower floor holds four rooms, three baths, a kitchen and a large dining and living area. The upper floor is private — a grand bedroom, a grand bathroom with a two-person whirl tub, office space, another washroom, and an open living and dining room with four large windows and a wood stove — plus a self-contained suite with its own kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom, and two balconies.

It can be heated by electricity, wood or pellet stove, and is well insulated. Both levels have English and German satellite TV and internet, with high-speed and wireless set up. Beside the main house are a sauna and storage room and a 25 kW generator for outages.

The land is slightly sloped and well treed, on a well tested monthly for the business with consistently good water quality and quantity, and its own sewage system enlarged in 2005 to carry the business. Two paddocks, fenced fields, shelters and a round pen make it ready for several horses. Crown land begins at the north boundary, with a 20-minute trail down to Sulphurous Lake.

The zoning is Residential Rural 2 and Commercial CR2, and the commercial side would also permit a campground, motel, restaurant or ATV tours. 100 Mile House is 35 minutes away with supermarkets, schools, sports facilities and a hospital, and a school bus route runs. Kamloops is two hours, Vancouver six. Many guests reach the ranch on Highway 24 while touring BC. The owners are retiring to spend more time with family.