Though Mount Revelstoke National Park lies barely 80 kilometres from the Canadian Rockies, it protects part of a distinct system within the Columbia Mountain Range. The Columbias consist of older, harder rock, such as granite and marble; they feature sharper peaks and steeper valley walls than the Canadian Rockies.

The Columbias are also mush wetter than the Rockies and are blanketed with the verdant vegetation of the interior wet belt. Much of Mount Revelstoke National Park is temperate old-growth rain forest, an increasingly rare habitat in British Columbia because of widespread logging. Mount Revelstoke is famous for the wildflower extravaganzas that brighten its subalpine meadows during the summer.

Many of the interpretive signs explain why such old-growth has value that transcends the aesthetic. For example, moose survive the Columbia Mountains’ winters by retreating to the old-growth. There the canopy intercepts much of the snow, enabling the moose to move about easily. Big, rotting trees also provide denning sites for wolverines, marten, and other animals; black bear dens have been found in the cavities of large cedars as high as 50 feet off the ground.