Hart Ranges | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Peak | Mount Ovington |
Elevation | 2,941 m (9,649 ft) [1] |
Listing | Ranges of the Canadian Rockies |
Coordinates | 54°08′40″N120°34′15″W / 54.14444°N 120.57083°W [1] |
Dimensions | |
Length | 282 km (175 mi)NW-SE [2] |
Width | 367 km (228 mi) |
Area | 13,584 km2 (5,245 sq mi) |
Geography | |
Country | Canada |
Provinces | British Columbia and Alberta |
Range coordinates | 55°0′N122°30′W / 55.000°N 122.500°W [3] |
Parent range | Canadian Rockies |
Borders on |
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Topo map | NTS 93O/01 [3] |
The Hart Ranges are a major subrange of the Canadian Rockies located in northeastern British Columbia and western Alberta. The mountains constitute the southernmost portion of the Northern Rocky Mountains.
The Hart Ranges were named in honour of British Columbia Premier John Hart, as is the highway which traverses the Pine Pass in the northern part of the range, connecting the north-central Interior of the province to the Peace River Regional District to the northeast. [4]
The boundaries of the Hart Ranges are the Rocky Mountain Trench and the McGregor Plateau on the west/southwest, the Peace Reach of Williston Lake on the north, a certain line of demarcation with the Rocky Mountain Foothills to the east/northeast, and the Jarvis Creek to the south. [5] [6]
The Hart Ranges is home to two ultra-prominent peaks, Mount Crysdale and Mount Ovington. Mount Ida and Mount Sir Alexander are south of Jarvis Creek and are in the Continental Ranges, which comprise the main and best-known part of the Rocky Mountains and run all the way south to Marias Pass in Montana.
Official subdivisions of the Hart Ranges include the:
Other areas of the Hart Ranges have no subdesignations though the area around Mount Sir Alexander has been dubbed the Mount Sir Alexander Group by The Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia; however, this is not an official designation.
The Hart Ranges are the location of a number of large coal mines focused on the remote communities of Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd.
The southernmost tip of the mountain range is preserved within Kakwa Provincial Park and Protected Area. Other provincial parks located within the range include Monkman Provincial Park and Hole-in-the-Wall Provincial Park.
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch 3,000 miles in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Canada, to New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. Depending on differing definitions between Canada and the U.S., its northern terminus is located either in northern British Columbia's Terminal Range south of the Liard River and east of the Trench, or in the northeastern foothills of the Brooks Range/British Mountains that face the Beaufort Sea coasts between the Canning River and the Firth River across the Alaska-Yukon border. Its southernmost point is near the Albuquerque area adjacent to the Rio Grande rift and north of the Sandia–Manzano Mountain Range. Being the easternmost portion of the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are distinct from the tectonically younger Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada, which both lie farther to its west.
Mount Robson is the most prominent mountain in North America's Rocky Mountain range; it is also the highest point in the Canadian Rockies. The mountain is located entirely within Mount Robson Provincial Park of British Columbia, and is part of the Rainbow Range. Mount Robson is the second highest peak entirely in British Columbia, behind Mount Waddington in the Coast Range. The south face of Mount Robson is clearly visible from the Yellowhead Highway, and is commonly photographed along this route.
The Canadian Rockies or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, which is the northern segment of the North American Cordillera, the expansive system of interconnected mountain ranges between the Interior Plains and the Pacific Coast that runs northwest–southeast from central Alaska to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico.
The Peace River is a 1,923-kilometre-long (1,195 mi) river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River joins the Athabasca River in the Peace-Athabasca Delta to form the Slave River, a tributary of the Mackenzie River. The Finlay River, the main headwater of the Peace River, is regarded as the ultimate source of the Mackenzie River. The combined Finlay–Peace–Slave–Mackenzie river system is the 13th longest river system in the world.
Glacier National Park is part of a system of 43 parks and park reserves across Canada, and one of seven national parks in British Columbia. Established in 1886, the park encompasses 1,349 km2 (521 sq mi), and includes a portion of the Selkirk Mountains, which are part of the larger grouping of mountains, the Columbia Mountains. It also contains the Rogers Pass National Historic Site.
The Columbia Mountains are a group of mountain ranges along the Upper Columbia River in British Columbia, Montana, Idaho and Washington. The mountain range covers 135,952 km². The range is bounded by the Rocky Mountain Trench on the east, and the Kootenai River on the south; their western boundary is the edge of the Interior Plateau. Seventy-five percent of the range is located in Canada and the remaining twenty-five percent in the United States; American geographic classifications place the Columbia Mountains as part of the Rocky Mountains complex, but this designation does not apply in Canada. Mount Sir Sandford is the highest mountain in the range, reaching 3,519 metres (11,545 ft).
The Peace River Country is an aspen parkland region centring on the Peace River in Canada. It extends from northwestern Alberta to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, where a certain portion of the region is also referred to as the Peace River Block.
The Parsnip River is a 240-kilometre (150 mi) long river in central British Columbia, Canada. It flows generally north-westward from the Parsnip Glacier in the Hart Ranges to the Parsnip Reach of Williston Lake, formed by the impounding of the waters of the Peace River by the W.A.C. Bennett Dam in 1968. Prior to that, the Parsnip joined with the Finlay River to form the Peace at Finlay Forks, with both sharing an alignment along the Rocky Mountain Trench.
Hamber Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located 130 kilometres (80.7 mi) north of Golden. Straddling the Great Divide on the provincial boundary with Alberta, the park is surrounded on three sides by Jasper National Park and protects the headwaters of the Wood River at Fortress Lake.
Kakwa Provincial Park and Protected Area is a 170,890 ha provincial park in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. The park preserves the southernmost portion of the Hart Ranges and the northernmost portion of the Continental Ranges. The park also preserves significant marine fossil deposits located in the region.
The Canadian Rockies are a segment of the North American Rocky Mountains found in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.
The Spectrum Range, formerly gazetted as the Spectrum Mountains and the Rainbow Mountains, is a small mountain range in Cassiar Land District of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Located at the southern end of the Tahltan Highland, it borders the Skeena Mountains in the east and the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the west. The Spectrum Range is surrounded by the Arctic Lake Plateau in the southwest and the Kitsu Plateau in the northwest, both of which contain volcanic features such as cinder cones. It lies at the southern end of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex which includes the two neighbouring plateaus as well as Mount Edziza and the Big Raven Plateau to the north. The mountain range is drained on all sides by streams within the Stikine River watershed and, unlike Mount Edziza to the north, contains relatively small separate glaciers. Mount Edziza Provincial Park is the main protected area surrounding the Spectrum Range.
The British Columbia Interior, popularly referred to as the BC Interior or simply the Interior, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. While the exact boundaries are variously defined, the British Columbia Interior is generally defined to include the 14 regional districts that do not have coastline along the Pacific Ocean or Salish Sea, and are not part of the Lower Mainland. Other boundaries may exclude parts of or even entire regional districts, or expand the definition to include the regional districts of Fraser Valley, Squamish–Lillooet, and Kitimat–Stikine.
The Northern Rocky Mountains, usually referred to as the Northern Rockies, are a subdivision of the Canadian Rockies comprising the northern half of the Canadian segment of the Rocky Mountains. While their northward limit is easily defined as the Liard River, which is the northward terminus of the whole Rockies, the southward limit is debatable, although the area of Mount Ovington and Monkman Pass is mentioned in some sources, as south from there are the Continental Ranges, which are the main spine of the Rockies forming the boundary between British Columbia and Alberta. Some use the term to mean only the area north of the Peace Arm of the Williston Reservoir, and in reference to Northern Rocky Mountains Provincial Park, while others consider the term to extend all the way south, beyond the limit of the Hart Ranges at Mount Ovington, to include the McBride area, the Sir Alexander Group and Mount Robson.
The Mount Edziza volcanic complex is a group of volcanoes and associated lava flows in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Located on the Tahltan Highland, it is 40 kilometres southeast of Telegraph Creek and 85 kilometres southwest of Dease Lake. The complex encompasses a broad, steep-sided lava plateau that extends over 1,000 square kilometres. Its highest summit is 2,786 metres in elevation, making the MEVC the highest of four large complexes in an extensive north–south trending volcanic region. It is obscured by an ice cap characterized by several outlet glaciers that stretch out to lower altitudes.
Jarvis Pass is a mountain pass in Kakwa Provincial Park in the Northern Rockies of British Columbia, Canada, located to the north of Kakwa Lake, on the British Columbia-Alberta boundary, and therefore is on the Continental Divide. It was one of the many passes surveyed as a route for the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1870s.
A mountain formerly known as Mount Pétain, but with no current official name, is located on the border of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia (BC) on the Continental Divide.
Misinchinka Ranges, is the largest subdivision range of the Hart Ranges, of the Northern Rockies in British Columbia, Canada. The boundaries of the Misinchinka Ranges generally lie between the Rocky Mountain Trench to the west, Clearwater Creek and the Sukunka River to the east, the Peace Arm of Williston Reservoir to the north and Monkman Provincial Park to the south.
The Pioneer Range is a small subdivision range of the Misinchinka Ranges of the Hart Ranges of the Northern Rockies in British Columbia, Canada. The boundaries of the Pioneer Range are generally the Murray River to the east, Monkman Glacier to the west, Imperial Creek to the north and the Limestone Lakes to the south. The majority of the Pioneer Range lies within Monkman Provincial Park.
The Central British Columbia Mountain forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion in north-central British Columbia, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system.