Extending over 11,000 square kilometres, Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies and part of UNESCO’s Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site.

In 1793 Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] crossed the Continental Divide through what is now this park, on his way to the Pacific OceN. Simon Fraser [1776–1862] followed the same route in 1805.

Arctic Lake drains north into the Parsnip River, and through the Peace River and the Mackenzie River reaches the Arctic Ocean.

Pacific Lake (and Portage Lake) are at the headwaters of Bad River (James Creek), which drains into Herrick Creek, thence McGregor River, which empties into the Fraser River on to the Pacific Ocean.

The park also encloses Little Lake on Bad River.

The lakes are a beautiful turquoise colour, and situated in a very scenic area, with alpine peaks and ridges as a distant backdrop. Situated in an area of limestone bedrock, some watercourses drain underground. Valley bottoms alongside the lakes support wet meadows and mixed forest. Valley sides include extensive avalanche chutes and small, picturesque waterfalls.

The park, established in 2000, protects high value fall and spring grizzly habitat, and year-round caribou habitat. Lakes and streams support diverse fish populations, and provide excellent opportunities for fishing. Diverse fish populations including lake trout, bull trout, rainbow trout, kokanee, dolly varden, mountain whitefish, redside shiner, lake char, and chinook salmon, and arctic grayling in Arctic Lake.

There appears to be a resource road leading to the Parsnip side of the pass, starting at Bear Lake on the Hart Highway.

Jackman Flats Provincial Park was established in 2000. At the end of the last ice age, some 11,000 years ago, winds from the main trench of the Fraser River and from, what is now, Kinbasket Lake, deposited vast quantities of sand in the Jackman Flats area. This created an ecosystem considered unique in British Columbia. Rare plant communities and shifting sand dune structures now exist in this rather small park (614 ha).

Established by Order in Council 1211, 23 June 1982, containing 1930 hectares more or less.

Created in 2000 through the efforts of the Robson Valley Land and Resource Management Plan and the Protected Areas Strategy, Small River Caves Provincial Park protects a provincially important karst and cave system.

Located on the west side of the Small Creek drainage, high above the valley bottom, this cave complex is remote and difficult to access. It is considered to be a very dangerous cave system that should only be attempted by highly experienced cavers.

This 1,818 hectare park lies at the transition zone between Engelmann Spruce-Subalpine Fir and the Alpine Tundra biogeoclimatic zones. The Small River logging road accesses the drainage but one must be aware of logging truck traffic at all times.

Cavers need permission from BC Parks.

This is the second oldest provincial park in British Columbia, established in 1913
(Strathcona was established in 1911). It’s one of the seven national and provincial parks that together comprise the 26,583 square km World Heritage Site known as Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks.

During the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition, expedition leader Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] became ecstatic about “the vast possibilities of this new alpine paradise” — a combination of “snow-covered mountains, ice-encircled amphitheaters, tumbling glaciers, turquoise lakes and flashing waterfalls.” Wheeler urged the government of British Columbia to establish a provincial park at Mount Robson.

The post office at Mount Robson station was open from 1923 to 1955.