May 16, 2026: Field to Three Valley Gap
We woke to snow, clinging to all the tree branches, with the mountains fading into the low-lying clouds, the lake muted to mint green, and it looked like a winter wonderland, but with bare pathways underfoot, as it really wasn't cold enough to accumulate.
Ideally, we would have visited Canada's second-tallest waterfall, Takakkaw Falls, and also the very voluminous Wapta Falls while in Yoho, but the access roads for both were still closed for the season. So, after a buffet breakfast at the lodge, we decided to do the short Hamilton Falls hike (1.6 km) instead. It was a beautiful walk up through the woods, although slippery with melting snow turning the dirt and roots slick, so I was very happy we each had a hiking pole and rain pants, plus gloves and toques (more for the dropping snow/meltwater than the temperature). We made it up to the small but lovely falls; Miles did the final short leg by himself to get the best photo, as neither Mark nor I trusted ourselves not to slip on the narrow path to the final viewpoint.
Then we set off for Golden, planning to get lunch there before crossing Rogers Pass mid-day, timing it for the best possible weather conditions since it is at even slightly higher elevation (1330 m/4364 ft) than Emerald Lake. The snow turned to rain en route, but was never heavy. It was a bit early for lunch when we got to Golden, so we stopped in at a clothing store to get Miles a souvenir hoodie. We decided to pick up salads from the grocery store, craving healthy vegetables after last night's indulgent dinner.
When we got to Rogers Pass the weather was barely rainy, and the driving had been just fine, although the lane lines were very faded on some stretches of the highway. The visitor centre was closed for renovations, with just a small Parks Canada trailer and a building with washrooms open. We ate our salads in the car (they turned out to look better than they tasted). Then we continued on, with towering mountains views along the way and train tracks often paralleling us.
The roadside stops in Glacier National Park (Rock Garden Trail and Hemlock Grove Boardwalk) were still closed for the season, and the pull-out areas gated off, so we just drove through the park. As we crossed over to Mount Revelstoke National Park, the lower elevation roadside stops were open.
First was Giant Cedars Boardwalk Trail, a fairly short trail through a grove of large old-growth cedar trees, from 500-800 years old, up to 5 m/16 ft in diameter, and up to 60 m/200 ft tall. It's in a unique inland rainforest ecosystem that felt similar to Vancouver Island. Although the trail is a loop, the end was blocked off, as a giant cedar had crashed through part of the boardwalk, so it was instead an in-and-out route for us (0.6 km).
Next was the Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk Trail, another easy trail (2 km) through a wetland area by the Illecillewaet River. It was just the right time of year to see the skunk cabbages blooming - Miles had never seen (or smelled) this plant before. The further we went, the bigger the skunk cabbages got - much larger than any Mark or I had seen, but the scent remained pretty tame. The clouds also cleared up, so the yellow flowers glowed in the sun.
Because of both the closed waterfalls and trails along the way, as well as the time change (Field and Golden are in BC but keep AB time, but Revelstoke is an hour later on BC time) it was still only mid-afternoon by the time we reached Revelstoke, giving us time to visit the Revelstoke Dam on the Columbia River. It is one of Canada's largest and most powerful dams, and the scale of it is incredibly immense; the dam is 175 m/574 ft tall and 457 m/1550 ft long. In order to visit, we first had to go through a security checkpoint, and we could not bring any bags (including my purse) into the building. We were lucky enough to arrive just in time to join a guided tour, which led us outside near the base, then through a tunnel and up an elevator to look out from the top (incredible to think of the volume of water that's being held back), then a view of the machinery inside, and some excellent, interactive electrical displays.
Mark had a moment of deja vu as we drove into Revelstoke, remembered from past trips from AB to BC, although not with any significant time spent in Revelstoke itself. It was still not quite 5 pm, so the restaurant I'd had in mind wasn't yet open, and another we checked out had a sign posted that it was booked full except for the patio, which wasn't ideal since it was cool and intermittently raining. Instead, we ended up at Frisby Ridge Sushi. Although it looked fairly unassuming, it had great, fresh food with some interesting rolls and excellent quality ingredients. It felt like a very healthy, welcome change after our indulgent dinner of the night before.
We drove west out of town to our hotel, Three Valley Lake Chateau, which adjoins the Three Valley Gap Heritage Ghost Town. The hotel is like a classic, European resort transported to an incredibly remote, scenic location in the Rockies (it even generates all its own power from a small hydroelectric dam). We checked out the beautiful gardens and lake, then visited the heritage ghost town. The resort and heritage ghost town were created by the Bell family, starting in the 1950s and 60s (they drove from SK on the weekends to work on the construction!). I had been expecting something like Black Creek Pioneer Village, but it is much zanier, with such a proliferation of items that it seems like it was created as an excuse for compulsive collecting. There is a building with mining equipment and ramps leading down to a recreation of a mining tunnel, a huge barn of antique cars, an enormous roundhouse with train cars and a plane, plus many more log cabins and commercial buildings. After an hour and a half we had still seen only about half of it, but were getting tired, so decided to leave the remainder for the morning.
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