The route to Miller and Eva Lakes is one of outstanding hikes at the top of the Meadows-in-the-Sky parkway in Mount Revelstoke National Park. I don’t mind putting in some hard work to see beautiful views, but I am also a fan of trails like this; Where you can drive up the mountain and start at over 1800m elevation. It means that the views are incredible the entire time as you romp through alpine meadows, surrounded by scenic peaks. Then, the views get even better when you reach the stunning gemstone-coloured waters of Miller Lake and Eva Lake.

If you have extra energy the trail continues to the jewel of Revelstoke – Jade Lakes. I’ll write about that in a separate post so this doesn’t become too massive.

Miller Lake and Eva Lake trail map

Miller & Eva Lakes – the basics

Distance: 15 km 
Elevation gain: 400 m
Time: 4-5 hours
What to bring:
The 10 Essentials
Bear spray
Swimming things if you fancy a dip
Facilities:
There are loos at the trailhead as well at both lakes.
Dogs: No. You cannot bring dogs to the alpine meadows in Revelstoke National Park
How hard is it? Intermediate. The trail is pretty easy to follow, but I guess 15 km with a some elevation gain makes it moderately hard.
Extra Notes: This area does not have a long hiking season- you need to visit between June and October

Miller & Eva Lakes – Getting started

There are a few car parks on the top of the Meadows-in-the-Sky parkway. We opted for the first one, but you can keep going a teeny bit further to Balsam Lake. From there in normal years, there is a shuttle bus to the summit area. I don’t think it’s worth waiting for the shuttle though- it’s a short, pleasant walk up to the Firetower at the summit.

Historic Fire Lookout

Before you get started on the main trail, take a mini detour to look at the firetower. The beautiful wooden cabin has two stories to allow fire wardens to watch out for forest fires in all directions. It was built in 1927, but it still looks amazing.

Meadows in the Sky

This is one of those walks that you will love even if you can’t hike the whole way to Miller and Eva Lakes. The trails from the Meadows in the Sky (the name of this part of Revelstoke National Park) are all beautiful. This is the scenery from the fire lookout (South Parapet) with Heather Lake below.

Heather Lake

The second lake of the walk (if you include Balsam Lake) is Heather Lake. It is small, but surrounded by wildflowers and looks amazing. I especially loved the red paintbrushes.

North Parapet Views

There is a second fantastic viewpoint that looks out to Lake Revelstoke. This amazing scenery is all just over a kilometer away from the car park.

Miller Lake Trail

We spent a while exploring the flower filled meadows near the summit, but after a while it was time to start on the main event – the Miller Lake trail.

How busy is Revelstoke National Park?

There were lots of people near the start in the Meadows in the Sky. The crowds thin out as you hike further into the park. This is a popular trail, and we had not started particularly early in the morning, so once we got moving there were quite a few hikers on the trail. We were planning to go a long way so we walked quite quickly and ended up overtaking lot of hikers. If you go at a slower pace, it won’t seem so busy.

The Miller Lake trail slopes downhill for the first part of the walk. The route alternates between forest and meadows, but you can almost always look out to the mountains.

You gain around 170m in elevation as you walk up to Miller Lake. The route goes through some boulder fields, created by rock slides. But the path is really well made, so you don’t need to scramble (or do anything even vaguely technical.)

Miller Lake

Miller Lake itself is gorgeous! It is one of those crazy blue alpine lakes that changes colours as you look at it from different directions. It is named after the school principle in Revelstoke, Mr A.E. Miller, who explored the area in 1906 and then wrote excited letters to the local newspaper about how beautiful it was.

We spent some time sitting at the lake and admiring these gorgeous views. From here, you can continue on the Jade Lakes 4km one way (hike up to the mini peak in the middle of the photo below). Or you can go slightly further to Eva Lake 1.2km. Or (the best option) is doing both!

Miller Lake from Above

I’ll write a second post about hiking to Jade Lakes as if you can believe it, the scenery is even better. I took way too many photos to include them in a single post. Anyway, this is the view down to Miller Lake from the Jade Lakes trail.

On to Eva Lake

For now, I’ll show you the easy option – continuing on to Eva Lake. This mini adventure is only an extra 1.2 km beyond Miller Lake. The trail is uphill the entire way, but it’s not steep or difficult.

Eva Lake

This stunning alpine Lake was named after Eva Hobbs, a local school teacher who was one of the first settlers to explore Revelstoke National Park and set up the popular trails. Eva was the first person to see the lake in 1909 during a hike from Miller Lake. I can only imagine how exciting it must have been to be the first to see these views!

The Parks Canada website says that little is known about the area’s use by First Nations groups prior to European contact. Still, the views around the lake are incredible so I like to think people had been up here before the 1900s.

Eva Lake Cabin

The warden’s cabin at Eva Lake is the second oldest building in the park (it was built the year after the Fire Lookout, in 1928.) It is a pretty gorgeous location.

There is a loop around Eva Lake. If you visit – do walk around it it’s less than a kilometer and worth the extra effort. These are the views from the far side of the lake. You can look out to the fantastic views of the Selkirk Mountains.

We made it this far right at the end of the day at about 5:30pm. It was a bit too chilly to swim for us, but I would love to come back camp at this lake and swim here!

On this occasion we simply hiked back to Heather Lake and the car park. We spent so much time hiking, that everything turned golden on our way back as we raced the sunset.

Panoramas of Miller and Eva Lakes

Just to give you an idea of how stunning the views are for the entirety of this hike, here are a few panoramas.

Mount Revelstoke National Park is not anywhere near as famous as some of the other parks in the Rockies like Banff or Jasper. We have actually driven past this National Park countless times before finally stopping to explore these trails this summer. Now I have seen how stunning the area is, I whole heartedly recommend stopping to hike or camp here.