Mount Revelstoke National Park

Mount Revelstoke National Park is a national park in the Columbia-Rockies of British Columbia.

Meadow near the summit

Understand

Mount Revelstoke National Park is adjacent to the city of Revelstoke. The park is relatively small for a Canadian national park, covering 260 km² (100 sq mi). It is in the Selkirk Mountains and was founded in 1914. Approximately 600,000 visitors enter Mount Revelstoke and nearby Glacier National Park each year.

• Park office, ☏ +1 250-837-7500, RevGlacier.Reception@pc.gc.ca. 

Flora and fauna

This national park protects a small herd of the threatened woodland caribou as well as providing habitats for cougars, grizzly bears, lynxes, black bears, red foxes, moose, martens, coyotes, a variety of bats, wolf packs, several species of shrews, voles, mice, wolverines, and mountain goats.

Climate

The park contains a portion of one of the world's few inland temperate rain forests. Steep, rugged mountains can be found in a warm, moist climate. A variety of plant and animal life is typical with stands of old-growth Western Redcedar and Western Hemlock, a forest type which is rapidly declining outside of protected areas. The park's inland rainforest also has an isolated population of banana slugs which marks the eastern boundary of their distribution in North America.

Visitor information

• Park website

Get in

Mount Revelstoke National Park is in southeastern British Columbia, a 6-hour drive from Vancouver or 4½-hour drive from Calgary along Highway 1 (Trans-Canada Highway). The town of Revelstoke is adjacent to the western entrance and serves as a base for exploring the park.

Access is by highway. The community of Revelstoke, 800 m southwest of the park, is almost halfway from Calgary to Vancouver. It is served by small (charter) aircraft and by commercial bus lines. The Trans Canada Highway (Highway #1) is the point of access for visitors. It runs just inside the park's boundary for 13 km along the southeast perimeter of the park.

Fees and permits

The park is open year-round but its upper reaches can be snowbound into July. Many facilities are closed from October to May.

Daily admission fee (2024):

• Adult $11.00
• Senior $9.50
• Youth and children under 18 free
• Family/group $22.00

Seasonal passes are available for less than the cost of 5 day passes.

Fishing permit (2024):

• Daily $13.50
• Annual $46.25

Parks Canada Passes

The Discovery Pass provides unlimited admission for a full year at over 80 Parks Canada places that charge a daily entrance fee. It provides faster entry and is valid for 12 months from date of purchase. Prices for 2024 (taxes included):

• Family/group (up to 7 people in a vehicle): $151.25
• Children and youth (0-17): free
• Adult (18-64): $75.25
• Senior (65+): $64.50

The Cultural Access Pass: people who have received their Canadian citizenship in the past year can qualify for free entry to some sites.

Do

• 1 Meadows-in-the-Sky Parkway. Is a paved mountain road open during the snow free months. The parkway begins in the rainforests of the park’s southwest corner, winds upward through the sub-alpine forests and ends in the rolling sub-alpine wildflower meadows. The Monashee Mountains rise to the west, with the Selkirk range to the east. (updated Jun 2022)
• 2 Giant Cedars Boardwalk. Is a 500-m (0.3-mi) interpretive trail that twists through a stand of old-growth western red cedar and hemlock trees, some more than 800 years old. Exhibits along the way explore the secrets of this inland rainforest. (updated Jun 2022)
• 3 Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk. Is a 1.2-km (0.75-mi) interpretive trail that leads through valley bottom rainforest and fragile wetlands inhabited by muskrats, beavers, bears and the strange skunk cabbage plant. Exhibits also help to identify the many birds that migrate from South and Central America to the Skunk Cabbage area each year. (updated Jun 2022)

Sleep

Camping

• 1 Snowforest Campground (just off Meadows in the Sky Parkway near Highway 1). Has 62 sites, open May to October. The sites can be reserved. Includes potable water, flush toilets, and hot showers. Electricity is available. $30.50-36.00, Microcode cabin $133.25 per night. (updated Jan 2024)

Backcountry

Backcountry use and camping per permit (2024):

• Overnight, per person $13.50

Stay safe

• Emergency, ☏ +1-877-852-3100. 

Go next

• Glacier National Park — a short distance east along the Trans-Canada Highway, Glacier National Park is popular for hiking and camping in the warmer months, and backcountry ski touring in winter. It includes the Rogers Pass National Historic Site commemorating the engineering efforts to connect the early transcontinental railway (and later the Trans-Canada Highway) through the Selkirk Mountains.
• Wells Gray Provincial Park — about 300 km (190 mi) by car northwest of Revelstoke, near Clearwater, the park is part of a vast protected area that includes a portion of the Caribou Mountains, glaciers, alpine meadows, and waterfalls.
• West Kootenays — an area of lakes, parks, hot springs, small cities and towns surrounded by the region's lake valleys. Nelson is the largest community in the region, and maintains the laid-back and friendly lifestyle typical of the Kootenays.

Routes through Mount Revelstoke National Park

Kamloops ← Revelstoke ←

W  E

→ Glacier National Park → Banff