Wildflowers at the prime along the Meadows in the Sky Parkway-Revelstoke, B.C

by Keith and Heather Nicol 

The wildflowers are abundant and colourful

    The Meadows in the Sky Parkway is located just outside of Revelstoke, B.C. and is a perfect way to see the alpine environment on Mt Revelstoke. We were driving through Revelstoke on Wednesday, August 3 and decided to check out the local tourism office for advice on what to see and do locally. We were told about Meadows in the Sky Parkway and it seemed like the perfect way to see the alpine wildflowers that we were told would be in full bloom. One of the tourism agents said “Take this hiking trails map since it shows you the trail options at the top of the road”. The road is about 24 km long and it took us about 30 minutes to wind our way from 400 meters to 1835 meters in elevation at the top parking lot. There aren’t many paved roads that go this high in B.C. so this makes it easy for people of all ages to enjoy this type of sub alpine environment. 

Heather walking along the Heather Lake trail

Wildflowers along the First Footsteps Trail

   From the top we opted to do several short hikes including the Summit trail, Heather Lake trail, First  Footsteps Trail and we also checked out the North Parapet and Firetower Lookout. The wildflowers were abundant and included the bright red Indian Paintbrush, the yellow Mountain Arnica, purple Arctic Lupine and Subalpine Daisy as well many others. The trails we were on were well marked and easy walking for all ages. There were also some longer trails and if we had more time they would have been fun to hike. The Eva Lake trail (6 km 1 way) looked like an ideal trail with its rolling subalpine terrain and classic mountain views. Another bonus is that if you want to get a lift up the final 1 km of the road you can take a free shuttle bus which travels frequently between the parking lot and the upper trails. This is a gem of an area and the parkway makes hiking in the alpine an easy option. For more information see: http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/revelstoke/index.aspx

One of the viewpoints along the First Footsteps Trail