This was one of the highlights of our trip and we so very nearly missed it. We had found the entrance the previous evening , when we were looking for our campsite. We still had a long way to drive back to Vancouver and the road up to the meadows is 26km. That may not sound far but it is all up hill and had many bends, the maximum speed limit for much of the road is 20km. I knew it was late in the season for the mountain flowers, but I Just really wanted to go.
At 9am we were waiting at the gate for the road to open and up we went.We were only going to stay a short while before getting on our way.But it was just so beautiful.....there were still plenty of flowers and it must look really spectacular at the height of the flowering season. One of the guides told us that although the flowers are more spectacular early August, the midges and horseflies are very active as well! We went up after the first frosts which had been enough to kill the bugs but not the flowers.
Mount Revelstoke is a very small national Park and it was created in 1916 mainly to protect these meadows.
During WW1 Ukrainian Internees were lodged here from Sept to December in the hope that they could finish building the road, but the weather was so bad they spent all their time shovelling snow and chopping firewood. In the end the camp was closed and the Internees sent to the other camps in Banff national Park.
The whole road to the summit is only open for a very short season Usually from Mid July when the snow finally clears, until late September when the snows force them to start closing the road. (There are several gates on the road up)
We ended up spending the whole morning here , just enjoying the views, flowers and birds.
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