by Keith and Heather Nicol
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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.
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Heather walking along the Heather Lake trail |
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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
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One of the viewpoints along the First Footsteps Trail |
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