Ashcroft, British Columbia

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Ashcroft is a village in central British Columbia, Canada. It is located at latitude 50°43'00" and longitude 121°17'00". It is 30 km downstream from the west end Kamloops Lake, at the confluence of the Bonaparte and Thompson Rivers, and is in the Kamloops Division Yale Land District.

Ashcroft's downtown is on the east side of the Thompson River although the municipal boundaries straddle the river, with housing, the town's hospital and recreation complex on the west bank. It is something of a "twin" to nearby Cache Creek, which unlike Ashcroft is on the major highway.

The climate at Ashcroft is severe, with very hot, dry summers and bitterly cold, arid, although usually brief winters. It holds the distinction of having one of the hottest summers in Canada with a July average maximum of 30°C (86°F). Temperatures of over 100°F (38°C) are common in mid-summer. The sagebrush is the mainstay of lower-elevation terrain in this area, with dry pine on the heights above. The area is known for its cattle ranching, with the historic Ashcroft and Basque Ranches southwest of town, and the Parke Ranch - among the very oldest in British Columbia - skirting the town limits of Cache Creek.

Ashcroft recently expanded its boundaries to include the Ashcroft Ranch, bought in 2000 by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) as the successor site to the Cache Creek Sanitary landfill. The Ashcroft Landfill Project has yet to be approved (2005) by the BC government, but if approved the Ranch would become the repository of most of the garbage produced in the Province of British Columbia for the next one hundred years.

The town's Japanse sister city is Bifuka, Hokkaido.

[edit] External links

• http://www.sundanceguestranch.com/
• http://www.pimainus-lake-lodge.ca/