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The Parks / British Columbia / Mount Revelstoke National Park

Archeological research indicates that the area was largely avoided by aboriginal people prior to the arrival of the fur traders who used the confluence of the Columbia and Illecillewaet Rivers as an encampment site. Later the site became a base for explorers and a supply point for mining operations. By 1885 the Canadian Pacific Railway had crossed Rogers Pass and the last leg of the transcontinental line was achieved. Railway construction made the river junction, later called Revelstoke, a divisional point. Glacier National Park saw the beginning of recreational mountain climbing in North America and Revelstoke was probably the first town to host alpine skiing in Canada. Revelstoke National Park was established in 1914 as a result of the lobbying by the area’s residents to protect the beautiful wild flowers growing on the mountainsides.

The Columbia Mountains lying to the west of the Rockies are really four mountain ranges: the Purcells, Selkirks, Monashees and Cariboos, with the Columbia River cutting between the Selkirks and Monashees. Composed of very hard rock, these ranges resist erosion to remain sharp and angular - a vertical world of canyons squeezed between steep mountain walls. The heavy snowfall - up to 23 metres each year - steep slopes and mild climate are perfect conditions for avalanches and the advancing of the 400 glaciers in the parks.