Living Here · Gateway to the Shuswap
Chase, BC
A local area guide · The Highlands at Blind Bay
Chase is a village of about 2,400 people at the west end of Little Shuswap Lake in British Columbia’s Thompson-Nicola Regional District, where the lake empties into the South Thompson River. Sitting on the Trans-Canada Highway roughly 20 to 25 minutes west of our lake-view lots at Blind Bay, it is known for Talking Rock golf, the Adams River sockeye run nearby, and a Chase BC real estate market that runs from in-town homes to lake-access acreages.
Where Chase sits
Chase sits at the outlet of Little Shuswap Lake, the smaller lake that feeds Shuswap Lake’s South Thompson arm, and it is the point where that outflow becomes the South Thompson River proper. Chase Creek runs down through town over three small waterfalls before joining the South Thompson just below the lake, which is part of why the village reads as a water town even though it sits a step removed from the main body of Shuswap Lake itself.
The Trans-Canada Highway runs along the south side of the village, putting Kamloops about 57 kilometres (roughly 45 minutes) to the west and Salmon Arm about 52 kilometres (roughly 40 minutes) to the east. Sorrento is about 20 kilometres east, and our lake-view lots at The Highlands at Blind Bay in Blind Bay sit another few kilometres past that, about 20 to 25 minutes from Chase in total. The Canadian Pacific Railway mainline also runs straight through the community, carrying freight and passenger trains the way it has for well over a century.
With a population around 2,400, Chase is smaller than Salmon Arm but a genuine working village rather than a bedroom suburb, built on forestry and tourism and, locally, on a reputation for fertile farmland. Long-time residents joke that Chase runs on two seasons, corn season and waiting for corn season, which says something about how much the town leans on its own soil rather than the highway trade passing through it.
A village with a real history
The name goes back to Whitfield Chase, an early settler who established a ranch in 1865 right where the South Thompson River flows out of Little Shuswap Lake. When the Adams River Lumber Company laid out the townsite in 1902 to serve its mill operations, the company’s secretary, James A. Magee, named it after him. Chase was incorporated as a village on April 21, 1969, and its official motto, “Chase, a Shuswap Experience,” still shows up on the welcome signs along the highway.
That lumber-mill history left a mark on the townsite itself, and the rail line the company relied on is still the same Canadian Pacific mainline running through town today. It is a working-village history rather than a resort one, which gives Chase a different texture than the newer lake-view communities further east, ours at Blind Bay included.
Talking Rock, and golf around Chase
Talking Rock Golf Course, a few minutes from town at Quaaout Lodge, is the golf course most people mean when they mention Chase. It is an 18-hole, par-72 championship layout of about 7,129 yards, designed by Graham Cooke and Wayne Carleton and built on roughly 500 acres belonging to the Little Shuswap Lake Band, who have operated it since it opened in 2007. The back nine in particular uses the site’s elevation changes, and the closing hole is the one golfers who have played it tend to bring up first.
For a shorter round, the in-town Sunshore Golf Club runs a nine-hole course that suits a quick evening nine without the drive out to Quaaout Lodge. Between the two, Chase covers both ends of the golf trip, a full championship round or a fast nine before dinner, and it sits inside the loose collection of Shuswap-area courses that also includes ours at Blind Bay, about 20 to 25 minutes east.
The Adams River sockeye run
A short drive from Chase near Squilax sits Tsútswecw Provincial Park, long known to most visitors as Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Parkafter the writer and conservationist the older name honoured. The park stretches along the Adams River between the south end of Adams Lake and the western edge of Shuswap Lake, and it holds one of the largest sockeye salmon runs in North America. Every fourth year brings a dominant run, when millions of fish return to spawn, and 2026 is one of those years.
The park is worth a visit outside salmon season too. It preserves evidence of thousands of years of Secwepemc habitation along the river, including the remains of kekuli pit houses and pictographs on the exposed rock of the gorge, alongside easy walking trails through the forest. Being this close to a run of that scale, one of the defining natural events in the whole province, is one of the things that sets Chase apart from the other towns along this stretch of highway.
Everyday life in Chase
Little Shuswap Lake itself is the village’s main recreation draw, with beaches, boat launches and a large pier giving easy access to the water and the South Thompson River below it. For groceries, Safety Mart Foods runs a full-service store in the Chase Plaza on Shuswap Avenue, and the village carries its own Chase and District Health Centre, an RCMP detachment and a BC Ambulance station, so most day-to-day needs are covered without a drive to Salmon Arm.
One genuine point of difference: Chase belongs to School District 73, Kamloops-Thompson, rather than the School District 83 that covers Sorrento, Blind Bay and Salmon Arm. The village runs its own combined elementary and secondary school, so a family in Chase is inside a different district than a family building at The Highlands at Blind Bay in Blind Bay, worth knowing if schooling is part of the decision.
Things to do in Chase
Most of a weekend here comes back to the lake, the river and the golf course, with the Adams River run adding a genuine once-every-four-years event to the calendar.
- ·A round at Talking Rock Golf Course or a quick nine at Sunshore
- ·Beach time, a boat launch or the pier on Little Shuswap Lake
- ·Walking the trails at Tsútswecw Provincial Park
- ·The Adams River sockeye run in a dominant year, like 2026
- ·A stop at Safety Mart Foods and the Chase Chamber & Visitor Centre
- ·A short drive east to the golf and marina at Blind Bay
Chase BC real estate
Chase BC real estate covers a wide range for a village this size. In town, houses for sale in Chase run from modest character homes on village lots within walking distance of Shuswap Avenue to newer builds on the edges of the community. Out toward Little Shuswap Lake, the market opens into acreages and lake-access properties, with the odd waterfront listing appearing when one comes up. It is a real estate market built for year-round residents first, which keeps homes for sale in Chase, BC generally more affordable than the lakefront-heavy listings closer to Salmon Arm.
For an established resale home with a working village around it, Chase is worth a serious look on its own. For a new-build lake-view lot rather than a resale house, the closest option is The Highlands at Blind Bay, about 20 to 25 minutes east in Blind Bay: 60 fully serviced lots on the south shore, sold on their own or paired with a move-in-ready build plan from Blind Bay Homes, backed by a developer with more than fifty years on this shoreline. Buyers weighing houses for sale in Chase against a new-build lot tend to split along the same line as everywhere else in the South Shuswap: an established village setting versus a new lake-view lot you help shape from the ground up.
For the rest of the South Shuswap, from Sorrento to Salmon Arm, see our full Living Here guide.
Getting to Chase
The Trans-Canada Highway runs straight through Chase, so the drive in from either direction, Kamloops to the west or Blind Bay and Salmon Arm to the east, is a single stretch of highway rather than a series of back roads.
Chase FAQ
Common questions
- Where is Chase, BC?
- Chase is a village in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, sitting at the outlet of Little Shuswap Lake, which is also the source of the South Thompson River. It is on the Trans-Canada Highway, about 20 kilometres (roughly 15 minutes) west of Sorrento and about 25 kilometres (roughly 20 to 25 minutes) west of our lake-view lots at Blind Bay. Kamloops is about 45 minutes further west along the same highway.
- How did Chase get its name, and what is its history?
- The village is named for Whitfield Chase, an early settler who ranched where the South Thompson River runs out of Little Shuswap Lake starting in 1865. The Adams River Lumber Company laid out the townsite in 1902 and named it after him, and Chase was incorporated as a village in 1969. The Canadian Pacific Railway mainline still runs through town, and forestry and tourism remain the two industries most people here work in.
- Is there golf near Chase, BC?
- Yes, two courses. Talking Rock Golf Course, an 18-hole, par-72 championship layout of about 7,129 yards designed by Graham Cooke and Wayne Carleton, sits a few minutes from town at Quaaout Lodge, on land belonging to the Little Shuswap Lake Band. In town, the shorter Sunshore Golf Club offers a nine-hole round for a quicker morning out.
- What is the Adams River sockeye run, and how close is it to Chase?
- Tsútswecw Provincial Park, long known as Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park, sits a short drive from Chase near Squilax, where the Adams River carries one of the largest sockeye salmon runs in North America. A dominant year, when millions of fish return, happens every four years, and 2026 is one of them. The park also preserves Secwepemc pit-house sites and pictographs along the river.
- What is the real estate market like in Chase, BC?
- Chase BC real estate runs from in-town character homes on village-sized lots to acreages and lake-access properties around Little Shuswap Lake, which keeps houses for sale in Chase approachable for a wide range of budgets. For a new-build lake-view lot rather than a resale home, the closest option is our lots at The Highlands at Blind Bay, about 20 to 25 minutes east.
- Is Chase a good base for visiting or living in the Shuswap?
- It works well for both, and for more than one kind of buyer. Chase suits people who want a small, working village with the lake, the golf and the Adams River close at hand, and it sits an easy drive from Sorrento, Salmon Arm and Blind Bay for anything the village itself does not carry. Families, retirees and remote workers all find a place here rather than one life stage owning the town.
Close to Chase. A short drive to your lake view.
New lake-view lots are selling now at The Highlands at Blind Bay, about 20 to 25 minutes east of Chase. Register for updates or book a look around.