When we started up Mount Revelstoke, the summit felt like the destination. Sixteen miles of road climbed ahead of us, winding from the forest near Revelstoke toward the subalpine meadows at the top. We expected the views to get better as we climbed, maybe stop a few times, hike around the summit, and eventually make our way back down. What we didn’t expect was how often Mount Revelstoke would give us a reason to stop before we ever reached the top.
The Meadows in the Sky Parkway stretches 26 km / 16 miles up Mount Revelstoke, climbing from about 470 m to 1,835 m at Balsam Lake. As the road climbs, the landscape slowly changes with it. Cedar and hemlock give way to spruce and fir, and eventually the dense forest begins opening into the subalpine landscape near the summit.
For us, the drive was easy and peaceful. We weren’t in much of a hurry, which turned out to be a good thing. We stopped at a few viewpoints along the way, stepped out of the van, looked across the mountains, and then kept climbing. The summit was still somewhere above us, but the day already felt worth the drive.
At Balsam Lake, we left the van behind and started walking. The Upper Summit Trail is listed at about 2 km / 1.2 miles round trip with roughly 91 m / 300 ft of elevation gain. Parks Canada estimates around 40 minutes to complete it.
We took 1 hour and 3 minutes. By the time we finished, we had walked about 2.25 miles with 381 feet of elevation gain. We weren’t trying to set a pace or beat the suggested time. There was too much around us worth stopping for, and the farther we walked, the less the trail felt like something we were trying to finish. It became part of the day instead.
Mount Revelstoke is known for its subalpine wildflower meadows, where the growing season is short and the landscape can change quickly during the warmer months. This was one of the parts we had been looking forward to. And somehow, it was even better once we were standing in it.
The ground around the trail was thick with green plants and small flowers. Tall trees framed sections of the path while the mountains appeared through openings in the forest. Nothing about it felt like something we needed to rush through. So we didn’t. We walked a little slower. Stopped a little more. Looked around instead of only looking ahead. The summit was still the direction we were walking, but it was becoming less important with every stop.
Then we started finding water. The summit area is dotted with small alpine lakes, including Balsam Lake, Heather Lake, and Eagle Lake. Longer trails continue deeper into the park toward Eva, Miller, and Jade lakes. We hadn’t expected the lakes to be such a memorable part of the day. They seemed to appear quietly between the meadows and trees, almost hidden in the landscape.
Heather Lake became our favorite. It wasn’t the biggest view of the day. It wasn’t dramatic. It was just quiet, green, and tucked into the mountains. And somehow that was enough. It was one of those places that would have been easy to walk past if we were only focused on getting somewhere else. We were glad we weren’t.
Eventually, we made it to the views we had been climbing toward all day. On a clear day, the summit area opens toward the Monashee Mountains to the west and the Selkirk Mountains to the east, including Mount Begbie. We are always big fans of a mountain summit we can get close to by van, and Mount Revelstoke definitely delivered. After the winding drive, the viewpoints, the trail, the flowers, and the little alpine lakes, standing near the top felt like the right way to end the day.
The views were huge. But strangely, they weren’t the part we kept thinking about. It was Heather Lake. The flowers beside the trail. We started the day thinking Mount Revelstoke was about reaching the summit. By the end, the summit almost felt like a bonus. Because the best part of Mount Revelstoke wasn’t waiting for us at the top. It was everything we found between the bottom and the top.
