Casey Richardson The Town of Princeton is working on attracting tourists through a virtual reality experience of the Similkameen River. After a year and a half of work, the Princeton Visitor Centre has set up the Virtual Reality Room experience, where participants get to kayak the Similkameen River with a spectacular river view of the Red Ochre Bluffs. Princeton Economic Development and Tourism Director Gary Schatz said the project really took hold after the floods in November of 2021, when the town lost a portion of the Kettle Valley Rail (KVR) Trail between Tulameen and Princeton.
“I felt it was important that people could still see the red ochre bluffs that are here,” Schatz said. “The thought was, if we could create our kayaking experience down the river, it would give people an opportunity to see it from an angle they've never seen it before and do something that most people aren't capable of doing. The VR tour runs during the freshet, so the waters are high.
And we had a couple of extreme kayakers in that did the filming for us.” The experience also includes a flyover portion to get a different look at the town from an aerial view. “It really provides some interesting perspective of the river and gives you a different aspect of the Town of Princeton with some new technology that we're always trying to embrace here.
” The project cost an estimated $25,000. Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne said it’s pretty cool people get to explore part of Princeton that they n.
