Meadows in the Sky | A Solo Birthday Hike to Eva & Miller Lake

On my birthday this year, I didn't want a party. I wanted a trail, a camera, and a day to myself. So on July 26th I drove up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway in Mount Revelstoke National Park, BC, and hiked from Balsam Lake through old forest, wildflower meadows and a rocky stretch to two alpine lakes: Miller Lake and Eva Lake. I filmed all of it myself on a tripod, so every few steps forward meant a walk back for the camera. What makes this trail special: you drive most of the climb. The Meadows in the Sky Parkway winds 26 km up from the valley to about 1,835 m, so the hike starts right in the subalpine meadows. The trail itself is gently rolling with a few short steep bits, about 400 to 470 m of elevation change, compared with roughly 800 to 900 m of climbing on hikes like Avalanche Crest in nearby Rogers Pass, where you start down in the rainforest. It's still a long day if you do both lakes (about 17 km), but you can turn around whenever you like and you'll have had alpine views from the very first kilometre. One of the easiest ways into high alpine scenery in the Columbia Mountains. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold Open 0:16 Meadows in the Sky 0:51 Balsam Lake 1:17 The Forest 1:47 The Meadows 4:54 Into the Rock 6:26 Miller Lake 7:24 Eva Lake 8:32 Best Birthday in a While THE TRAIL Start: Balsam Lake, at the end of the Meadows in the Sky Parkway. Miller Lake: about 6.8 km from the parking lot. Eva Lake: about 8.1 km. Both lakes: about 17 km return. Easy to moderate: wide forest trail and meadows first, then rocky terrain and a creek crossing before the lakes. Usually snow-free only from mid-July through September. No dogs above Columbia Viewpoint. Very limited cell service. THE HISTORY Mount Revelstoke became a national park in 1914, one of Canada's earliest, after the town pushed to protect its summit meadows. Eva Lake is named after Eva Hobbs, a Revelstoke schoolteacher said to be the first to see it (Revelstoke Museum & Archives). The small log cabin at Eva Lake is a 1928 park warden cabin. MUSIC Licensed via Pixabay. "Dramatic - Dramatic Teaser" by YevhenAstafiev: https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-... "Nature Cinematic" by leberch: https://pixabay.com/music/modern-clas... "Nature" by leberch: https://pixabay.com/music/beautiful-p... "Cinematic - Cinematic Music" by leberch: https://pixabay.com/music/build-up-sc... "Motivation" by leberch: https://pixabay.com/music/solo-piano-... "Calm - Calm Music" by leberch: https://pixabay.com/music/pop-calm-ca... SOUND "Trout splashing after being caught" by TheFlyFishingFilmmaker, freesound.org/s/592784, CC BY 4.0 Hoary marmot whistles by SoundsLikeYukon (Freesound, CC0). Further sounds: Pixabay and Freesound (CC0). MAPS Sentinel-2 cloudless by EOX (Copernicus Sentinel data 2023). Map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. Terrain: Copernicus DEM. MORE TRAIL FILMS Avalanche Crest: A Solo Hike Through the 1910 Rogers Pass Disaster Site:    • Avalanche Crest — A Solo Hike Through the ...   Trophy Mountain Meadows to Long Hill Summit | Silent Hike, Wells Gray BC:    • Trophy Mountain Meadows to Long Hill Summi...   FURTHER READING Parks Canada, Mount Revelstoke summit day hikes (Miller, Eva and Jade Lakes): https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/bc/reve... #MountRevelstoke #EvaLake #HikingFilm