Tiny houses in Kootenay Lake & Nelson

Nelson sits on a steep hillside above Kootenay Lake, its downtown a genuine collection of more than 350 Victorian-era buildings — brick storefronts, tin ceilings, the wedding-cake facade of the Hume Hotel — that somehow ended up as a magnet for artists, potters and back-to-the-landers instead of becoming a museum piece. Tiny houses, converted circus wagons and off-grid cabins are tucked into the forested benches above the lake and up toward Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park, often solar-powered and reached by a gravel road rather than pavement. A short drive north, the Kootenay Lake ferry — the longest free ferry ride in the world — carries cars the 35 minutes across open water from Balfour to Kootenay Bay, and just past the landing, Ainsworth Hot Springs lets you soak in a horseshoe-shaped cave tunnel cut into the mountainside.

Castlegar airport is about 40 minutes south with direct flights from Calgary and Vancouver; by road it's roughly 4 hours from Kelowna and a solid 8-hour drive from Calgary through the Rockies. Winter belongs to Whitewater Ski Resort, 20 minutes from town, where around 12 metres of dry Kootenay powder falls most seasons with almost no lift lines. Summer swings the other way entirely — lake swimming, paddleboarding on Kootenay Lake, and hiking the alpine trails of Kokanee Glacier once the snow clears in July.