May 17, 2026: Three Valley Gap to Revelstoke

We had breakfast at the hotel dining room (casual homestyle cooking and friendly staff), stopped for a round of ping pong in the games room we passed through along the way, then toured the rest of the ghost town. We'd seen most of the big things the night before, but visited the roundhouse again with better lighting and found a "ghost train" that we hadn't noticed, as well as visiting some remarkably large buildings that had been relocated, such as entire saloons and a hotel.

Then we drove through Revelstoke and south to Blanket Creek Provincial Park. There was a short walk to Sutherland Falls, which was a very nice, classic bridal veil type of waterfall. Then we walked down to the shore of Arrow Lake Reservoir on the Columbia River, passing a swimming lagoon and beach volleyball players along the way. The weather had been predicted to be overcast, but was beautifully sunny.

We went back into Revelstoke for lunch at Teravita Kitchen, where Mark and I had very nice panini-style sandwiches and Miles had a toastie with delicious homemade ketchup, all while enjoying the nice weather on the outdoor patio.

We had planned to go swimming after at the Revelstoke Aquatic Centre, but it was closed Sundays - differing from the schedule I'd looked up prior to our trip - argh! Instead, we walked a bit further to find the Illecilleawaet Greenbelt trail. The river was very broad, with lots of ripples and little whirlpools. We found a quiet beach with perfect stones for skipping (so many stones - in the following days, Miles kept commenting on how his arm was sore from too much stone skipping) and the sunshine was glorious. Further on, there was a net, like a trampoline, for relaxing amongst the trees. Then we passed a power line, probably one of the high-voltage power lines transporting electricity all the way down to Mexico from the dam that we'd learned about on our tour. It was all more interesting and scenic than I had expected - the greenbelt had been a back-up option on my list of activities.

Just as we got to the point where we'd planned to cut back across town, it started to rain. It was a long, drizzly walk back to the car, completing an approximately 7 km loop.

We drove up the mountainside to the Sutton Place Hotel at The Revelstoke Mountain Resort. It seems like it will eventually be similar to Blue Mountain Resort, but much of it is still under construction, and none of the warm-season activities (mountain coaster, gondolas to hiking trails, etc.) were open yet, so it felt a bit like visiting yet another ghost town (and one that was more desolate). But, our dinner at the Rockford Bar and Grill was very nice (Mark has a Thai broth bowl, Miles had a tuna poke bowl, and I had a quinoa, veggie and chicken bowl) with nice, fresh ingredients, well-cooked, and lightly dressed. And the (somewhat heated) outdoor pool, hot tub and sauna area was lively. Possibly even better, we took advantage of the fact that our hotel room was a full suite and did all of our laundry so that we weren't just getting down to the dregs for the remainder of our trip. We also stocked up on a few groceries for a fast and easy healthy breakfast (yogurt, granola, blueberries).

Tree growing through the roof by the hotel lobby entrance

Tree signage

Lobby cat (Mom was always so delighted to encounter a cat while on vacation)

Ping pong battle (netting around the balcony kept the ball from being lost to the floor below)

Trapper Joe's cabin - a trapline shelter and pelt storage that belonged to a legendary trapper from the Eagle Pass area

The Golden Wheel Saloon

A cowboy walked into a saloon...

Haunted house ghost train

The roundhouse, which has the largest fully operational covered turntable in North America

The roundhouse is big enough to also house a plane, in addition to all the train cars

The train car that Pierre Elliott Trudeau was traveling in when he flipped off protestors with the "Trudeau Salute" in Salmon Arm, BC. The rooms and hallway are so compact, even though it was transporting the prime minister!