On Day Two of our Canadian Adventure, my mom and I drove to Mount Revelstoke National Park, the first in our tour of four. On our way, we stopped in a town called Salmon Arm to walk the longest curved wooden pier in North America. This felt like a weirdly specific statistic, especially because the pier was only 0.15 miles. It was blistering hot, and we bought too many groceries trying to elongate our shopping trip to enjoy the A/C. Still, Salmon Arm was a nice place to stop mid-day and enjoy this peculiar tourist site on the Trans-Canada Highway.
The main joy of the day was our first Canadian National Park, Mount Revelstoke. The park has a 29-kilometer drive that snakes up the mountain and offers multiple stops along the way. There are viewpoints, hikes through the forest, and finally Meadows in the Sky at the summit. There is a parking lot pretty close to the summit, and we hiked the 2.5-mile trail to the actual summit. (We clocked a total of 6.5 miles today!) To be honest, there wasn't much to see there. The apparently world-renowned wildflowers were not in full bloom, and we were viciously eaten by so many mosquitos that it was hard to enjoy the hike. Still, I did enjoy seeing all the moss hanging from the tree branches. There were lakes at the summit and so much greenery, it was hard to envision what it might look like in winter.
The best place to see views from Mount Revelstoke is the viewpoint just before the summit parking lot. We were glad to have found it, though we would have much preferred heading there before our unsuccessful hike. The views from atop the 6,375-foot-high Mount Revelstoke were beautiful. We could see the three surrounding mountain ranges, the bridges into Revelstoke, and the Columbia River beneath. All in all, Mount Revelstoke National Park was a great stop on our drive. I recommend it for hikers and car-dependent tourists alike.
Before heading to our campground south of Revelstoke, we got dinner in town and hit up a grocery store as it closed in desperate need of bug bite salve. The city of Revelstoke has a mere 8,000 residents, but it really didn't feel that way. It had a lot of culture, including live music every night all summer long. There was also an escape room called Revelstuck, and I have to give them hats off for that one.
Revelstoke was a cool spot, and with its proximate to some great outdoor adventures, I definitely recommend considering it as a home base or a first stop on a road trip. If you're trying to camp in the area, I wholeheartedly recommend Blanket Creek Provincial Park. It was a short drive from Revelstoke, it was private and quiet and serene, and you really can't beat having morning coffee with this view!
