Mount Robson Provincial Park, the second oldest park in British Columbia’s park system, is truly one of the world’s crown jewels. The mountain for which the park is named guards the park’s western entrance. At 3,954 metres, Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, towers over the lesser surrounding peaks; winter or summer, this is one of the finest views in the Rocky Mountains. Just as the early trappers, hunters and explorers felt in awe at the mountain’s magnificence, travellers today experience the same feelings.

With Alberta’s Jasper National Park as its easterly neighbour, Mount Robson Provincial Park comprises a portion of one of the world's largest blocks of protected areas. Designated as a part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990, Mount Robson provides everything from developed, vehicle-accessible camping to remote valleys that seldom see a human footprint. Mount Robson Provincial Park also protects the headwaters of the Fraser River. From its pristine alpine source, the Fraser River gains strength and size to match any of the world’s major rivers. Future genations will surely appreciate the protection of this great river’s source within Mount Robson Park.

Flora and fauna are typical of the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, North Continental Range. One is able, on some trails, to travel between three different vegetation zones during a day hike. Over 182 species of birds have been documented in the park. All wildlife indigenous in the Rocky Mountain can be found here. Mule and Whitetail Deer, Moose, Elk and Black Bear call the lower elevation home while Grizzly Bear, Caribou, Mountain Goat and Mountain Sheep inhabit the higher elevations. With over 217,000 hectares of mostly undisturbed wilderness available, wildlife populations are allowed to ebb and flow with minimal intervention by humans. There are excellent wildlife viewing opportunities throughout the park. From mountain goats on the many cliffs and rockslides to moose in Moose Marsh, the patient observer will be suitably rewarded.

First attempted in 1907, it was not until 1913 that humans finally stood on the summit of Mount Robson. On that clear, cold day guide Conrad Kain, W.W. Foster and A.H. McCarthy beheld a view no person had ever seen before.

For 20 years, the Mountain Legacy Project (MLP), based today in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, has been using repeat photography to examine, analyze, and understand landscape level change in the Canadian mountain west. Mt. Robson Provincial Park, with over 3 kilometres of elevation change from the valley of the Fraser River (approximately 800 m.) to the summit of Mt. Robson (3954 m), and four biogeoclimatic zones, represents a series of interconnected complex mountain ecosystems perfect for landscape level analysis. This park, with an area of roughly 2,250 km², may appear imperishable, but change is evident. Using reference photographs taken in 1911 by Arthur Wheeler, MLP teams went out in the field 100 years later to retake the images from exactly the same locations. All of the historic/modern image pairs so far completed can be seen online at explore.mountainlegacy.ca. A selected group of image pairs were further segmented into land cover classifications and analyzed for change. The results, including some interesting interactive change visualizations, are available at the Visualizing 100 Years of Landscape Change website. This work was completed in part through funding provided through the BC Parks Living Lab for Climate Change and Conservation Program.

Date Established: March 1, 1913
Provincial Park Size: 225,285 hectares