Living Here · Shuswap Lake
Sicamous, BC
A local area guide · The Highlands at Blind Bay
Sicamous sits at the narrows where Mara Lake meets Shuswap Lake, about 45 minutes east of Blind Bay along the Trans-Canada Highway. Known across the province as the Houseboat Capital of Canada, it is home to a little over 2,600 people, a working marina district, sandy beaches on two lakes, and genuine waterfront real estate, a different kind of Shuswap living than our lake-view lots at The Highlands at Blind Bay.
Where Sicamous sits
Sicamous sits at the north end of Shuswap Lake, where the lake’s Main Arm narrows and meets Mara Lake in a stretch locals have called the narrows since long before a Trans-Canada Highway bridge crossed it. The name itself comes from a Secwepemc word, recorded as early as 1865, that translates roughly to narrow or squeezed in the middle, a fitting description of the spot where the two lakes pinch together.
Today it is a District Municipality of a little over 2,600 people, incorporated in 1989, sitting about 45 minutes (59 km) east of The Highlands at Blind Bay in Blind Bay along the Trans-Canada Highway through Salmon Arm. Where our lots look out over the lake from the hillside above Blind Bay, Sicamous sits right down on the water on two lakes at once, which is a large part of why Sicamous real estate reads so differently from ours: it is a waterfront market first, and a residential town second.
Its position also makes it the practical gateway to the whole Shuswap for anyone arriving from the east. The Trans-Canada climbs down out of the mountains from Revelstoke and Rogers Pass and meets the lake right at Sicamous, so it is often the first town travellers from Alberta see, and the last stretch of highway before the valley opens up toward Salmon Arm, Sorrento and The Highlands at Blind Bay in Blind Bay. A grocery store, gas stations, a handful of restaurants and the usual highway services sit right along that stretch, which is useful to know whether you are stopping through or settling in.
The narrows and two lakes
Mara Lake sits just south of town, fed by the Eagle River, and drains north through the Sicamous Narrows into the Main Arm of Shuswap Lake, right past downtown. It is a different narrows than the one many boaters read about further out on the lake: Cinnemousun Narrows Provincial Park, a boat-access-only park about 18 kilometres northeast of town, marks the spot where Shuswap Lake’s four long arms actually converge.
Sicamous itself sits at the smaller, town-side narrows between Mara and Shuswap, which is exactly why it works so well as a base: two lakes, one short channel, and a highway bridge overhead. It is also why the town reads as genuinely waterfront in a way The Highlands at Blind Bay does not try to be. We are lake-view, up on the hillside in Blind Bay; Sicamous is lake-level, wedged between two bodies of water at once.
Houseboat Capital of Canada
Sicamous has called itself the Houseboat Capital of Canada since 1969, when the newly formed Rental Houseboat Owners Association coined the phrase, and the town leaned into it further after incorporating twenty years later. Twin Anchors has been building and renting houseboats here since 1977, and Waterway Houseboats runs a second fleet out of the same narrows, together making Sicamous home to the largest houseboat rental fleet in the country.
For anyone who wants the boating lifestyle without owning the boat, this is where you come to rent one for a week and disappear up one of Shuswap Lake’s four arms. For anyone who owns a boat already, or plans to, the marina infrastructure and the narrows location are the draw, and the rental docks sit just a few minutes off the highway right in town, about 45 minutes east of The Highlands at Blind Bay.
Beaches on two lakes
Sicamous counts nine public beaches across the area, more than any other town on the lake. The best known is Sicamous Beach Park, sometimes called Silver Sands, at the west end of Finlayson Street right at the mouth of the narrows, with a swim area, a splash park, volleyball nets and picnic space in the sand where Mara Lake empties into Shuswap Lake.
A short drive south on Mara Lake itself, Mara Provincial Park holds the only major public boat launch on that lake, along with a long sandy beach that gets a lot less crowded than the town beach through July and August.
Golf at MaraHills
MaraHills Golf Resort, an 18-hole, par-72 course of about 6,701 yards, sits above Mara Lake a few minutes south of town. Les Furber designed it in 2002 with dramatic elevation change built into the routing; the signature fourth hole, called Geronimo, drops about 140 feet from the tee to a landing area with the whole lake laid out below.
The course was known for years as Hyde Mountain before it was rebuilt and renamed MaraHills, and it now runs under the same GolfNorth ownership as the course at The Highlands at Blind Bay in Blind Bay. It rounds out the loose collection of Shuswap courses we cover in our full Living Here guide, alongside the course closer to home, reachable on foot through an underpass beneath Highway 1.
Things to do in Sicamous
- ·Rent a houseboat and spend a few days on Shuswap Lake's arms
- ·Swim at Sicamous Beach Park (Silver Sands) at the narrows
- ·A round at MaraHills, high above Mara Lake
- ·Launch a boat at Mara Provincial Park
- ·Browse the shops along the Sicamous waterfront
- ·A day trip south to Armstrong or east to Revelstoke
A rail-junction town
Sicamous has been a crossing point longer than it has been a resort town. CPR crews reached the narrows in the spring of 1885 and built a wooden pile bridge across it that same summer, and by 1892 a branch line to Okanagan Landing had made the settlement a rail junction, known locally for a stretch as Sicamous Junction. The rail crossing, and the highway bridge that eventually replaced it, are the reason the town exists exactly where it does: squeezed between two lakes, at the one place a road or a railway could get across.
Sicamous real estate, and the Blind Bay alternative
Sicamous real estate is a genuine waterfront market: houses and cabins with real shoreline on Shuswap Lake, Mara Lake or the Eagle River, alongside condos, recreational lots and the occasional houseboat sold outright rather than rented by the week. If actual lakefront and a boat off your own dock is the goal, Sicamous is where you look, and Sicamous homes for sale come up across a wide range, from modest cabins to architect-built waterfront houses. A good share of the buying interest is recreational or investment-minded, drawn by the same houseboat and tourism economy that built the town’s reputation in the first place, alongside year-round residents who simply want the water at the end of the driveway.
What Sicamous does not offer much of is new, fully serviced lots on the quieter side of the lake. Most Sicamous homes for sale sit on land developed decades ago, and new lots close to the water are scarce. That is a different proposition than The Highlands at Blind Bay, 60 fully serviced, lake-view lots on the south shore in Blind Bay, about 45 minutes west: new land with a view rather than existing waterfront, land you can buy on its own or pair with a move-in-ready build plan from Blind Bay Homes.
A lot of Shuswap buyers end up looking at both. Sicamous real estate answers the question of who wants a dock and a boat out the back door. The Highlands at Blind Bay answers the question of who wants a quiet, view-first lot on newly built land, close enough to Sicamous, Salmon Arm and everything on this page to have a bit of both within about 45 minutes.
Getting to Sicamous
The Trans-Canada Highway runs straight through both towns, so the drive from The Highlands at Blind Bay in Blind Bay to Sicamous is a single, direct stretch of highway through Salmon Arm, not a series of back roads. Here is how it stacks up against the rest of the region.
Sicamous FAQ
Common questions
- Where is Sicamous, BC?
- Sicamous sits at the north end of Shuswap Lake, at the narrows where Mara Lake meets the lake’s Main Arm, about 45 minutes (59 km) east of The Highlands in Blind Bay along the Trans-Canada Highway through Salmon Arm. It is a District Municipality of a little over 2,600 people in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District.
- Why is Sicamous called the Houseboat Capital of Canada?
- The Rental Houseboat Owners Association coined the phrase in 1969, and Sicamous has carried it ever since. Twin Anchors has rented and built houseboats from the town’s narrows since 1977, and Waterway Houseboats runs a second fleet alongside it, together making up the largest houseboat rental fleet in the country.
- Does Sicamous have real waterfront, unlike Blind Bay?
- Yes. Sicamous sits directly on Shuswap Lake, Mara Lake and the Eagle River, so Sicamous real estate includes genuine lakefront homes and private docks. The Highlands, 45 minutes west in Blind Bay, is lake-view rather than lakefront: new lots set on the hillside above the water for the outlook rather than a dock of your own.
- What is there to do in Sicamous?
- Houseboating is the headline activity, but the town also has nine public beaches (Sicamous Beach Park at the narrows is the best known), the MaraHills golf course above Mara Lake, and a public boat launch at Mara Provincial Park a short drive south.
- Is Sicamous a good place to buy real estate?
- It depends what you want. Sicamous homes for sale suit buyers after actual waterfront and a boat off their own dock, in a town built up over decades. Buyers after a new, fully serviced lake-view lot with room to build tend to look 45 minutes west at The Highlands in Blind Bay instead. A lot of Shuswap owners end up familiar with both towns.
- How far is Sicamous from Armstrong and the North Okanagan?
- About 40 minutes (54 km) south through Enderby and Grindrod. It is a common day-trip route for Sicamous and Blind Bay owners heading into the North Okanagan for shopping or a drive through wine country.
- What does the name Sicamous mean?
- It comes from a Secwepemc word, recorded as early as 1865, that translates roughly to narrow or squeezed in the middle, describing the spot where Mara Lake pinches into Shuswap Lake. The Canadian Pacific Railway reached the same narrows in 1885 and made the settlement a rail junction by 1892, well before the houseboat industry gave it its modern nickname.
Close to Sicamous. A quieter view of the Shuswap.
New lake-view lots are selling now at The Highlands at Blind Bay, about 45 minutes from Sicamous and everything on this page.