Mount Revelstoke National Park

The park was championed by Revelstoke residents, including mountaineering and ski clubs and the local Progress Club, which built the first summit trail in 1910. The Meadows in the Sky Parkway was started in 1911 and completed in 1927. During the First World War, more than 200 people interned as enemy aliens were held at a camp on the mountain in 1915 and worked on the road before the camp was abandoned. The mountain was also an early ski-jumping site: a jump opened in 1915 and was expanded to Olympic specifications in 1933, with international records set there until the final event in 1971. Nels Nelsen is the jumper most associated with it, and the Nels Nelsen parking area carries his name. The site was later converted to hiking and downhill biking trails.

The park holds part of one of the world's few inland temperate rainforests, with old-growth western redcedar and western hemlock. The Giant Cedars Boardwalk is an approximately 500-metre interpretive loop through trees that Parks Canada says include specimens over 500 years old. The Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk is a 1.2-kilometre route over wetlands with viewing platforms. Wildlife includes a small herd of threatened caribou, grizzly and black bears, cougars, moose, wolverines and mountain goats.

The 26-kilometre paved parkway climbs from rainforest through subalpine forest to open alpine meadows. Parks Canada describes Mount Revelstoke as the only mountain in the national park system you can summit with a short walk from your car. Dogs are not allowed above the Columbia viewpoint, 12 kilometres up. The meadows put on their peak wildflower display in August; glacier lilies, Arctic lupine and pink mountain heather are among the species. Marked trails protect fragile alpine plants.

The Summit Trail is an early twentieth-century route, about 10 kilometres from the Nels Nelsen parking lot to the summit. Eva Lake, over rolling subalpine terrain, is the classic longer hike, with Miller Lake a short side trip and Jade Lakes a harder extension. A backcountry campsite is available at Eva Lake.

• The parkway is snow-free only in warmer months and closes for the winter, so check Parks Canada for current trail conditions, closures and access, and for any fees.
• Weather at the summit differs from the valley.
• A Voyzo private tour provides a private vehicle and driver with door-to-door pickup, so you can plan the parkway drive and the boardwalks without driving yourself.

Glacier National Park and Rogers Pass lie east along the Trans-Canada Highway, and Revelstoke's town centre and the Railway Museum are minutes from the park gate.