Rocky Mountain Trench, astronaut photo from ISS, 2014
The Rocky Mountain Trench, also known as the Valley of a Thousand Peaks or simply the Trench, is a large valley on the western side of the northern part of North America'sRocky Mountains. The Trench is both visually and cartographically a striking physiographic feature extending approximately 1,600km (1,000mi) from Flathead Lake, Montana, to the Liard River, just south of the British Columbia–Yukon border near Watson Lake, Yukon. The trench bottom is 3–16km (1.9–9.9mi) wide and is 600–900m (2,000–3,000ft) above sea level. The general orientation of the Trench is an almost straight 150/330° geographic north vector and has become convenient as a visual guide for aviators heading north or south.
The Trench is drained by four major river basins: the Columbia, Fraser, Peace and Liard. Two reservoirs of the Columbia River Treaty fill much of its length today - Lake Koocanusa and Lake Kinbasket. A further British Columbia power initiative created Lake Williston. Rivers that follow the Trench, at least in part, are the Kootenay River, the Columbia River, the Canoe River, the Flathead River, the Fraser River, the Parsnip River, the Finlay River, the Fox River, and the Kechika River. The North Fork of the Flathead River, flowing into Flathead Lake with the other branches of the Flathead River, is part of the Columbia River system. The Kechika is part of the Liard River system, and the Fox, Parsnip and Finlay Rivers are part of the Peace River system. The Canoe River is a short tributary of the Columbia system, draining into Kinbasket Lake, a reservoir on the Columbia River. The Kootenai River, however, does not fully follow the Trench but exits Canada southwest via Lake Koocanusa reservoir to the Libby Dam. The Kootenay River (Canadian spelling) is a tributary of the Columbia, joining the Columbia at Castlegar, BC after a meander through the United States as the Kootenai River (US spelling).
For convenience the Rocky Mountain Trench may be divided into two sections, the Northern Trench (between the Muskwa Ranges and Interior Mountains) and the Southern Trench (between the Continental Ranges and Columbia Mountains), separated by the northeastern portion of the Interior Plateau west of the Hart Ranges. The Copley Range of the Arctic Pacific Lakes Provincial Park forms the drainage divide between the northerly Parsnip-Finlay-Peace system into the Arctic Ocean (via the Mackenzie River) and the southwesterly McGregor-Fraser system into the Pacific Ocean. The northern end of the Columbia Mountains at ~54°N near Prince George, British Columbia, where the Fraser River leaves the Trench to enter the Interior Plateau, may be used for this purpose. The northern portion of the Trench is dominated by strike-slip faulting, while the southern part of the Trench was created by normal faults. Despite differences in timing and faulting styles of the northern and southern portions, they were aligned with each other because faulting for both was controlled by a pre-existing, west-facing, deep basement ramp with over 10km (33,000ft) of vertical offset.
Northern Rocky Mountain Trench
The Northern Rocky Mountain Trench is closely aligned with the Tintina Trench near the British Columbia-Yukon border at 60 degrees north latitude, and the two trenches could arguably be classified as one and the same - or 'extensions' of each other. The Tintina Trench extends further north-westward through the Yukon into Alaska. The visible expression of the two trenches is lost where they plunge under the boreal forests of the Liard Plain proximate to the small communities of Watson Lake, Yukon and Lower Post, BC. The highest point in the northern Trench is Sifton Pass at an elevation of about 1,010m (3,310ft) near the bend of Scarcity Creek.
Geology
Right-lateral strike-slip movement of the Tintina Fault on the Tintina-Northern Rocky Mountain Trench may have begun during the middle Jurassic. The fastest rates of slip probably occurred during two pulses in the middle Cretaceous and early Cenozoic, respectively, with the latter probably occurring during the Eocene. Between 750km (470mi)to over 900km (560mi) of total right-lateral movement has occurred, of which 450km (280mi) of offset has occurred since the mid-Cretaceous. The result is that terrains to the west of the fault system have moved toward the north. In the context of plate tectonics, strike-slip movement of the Tintina Fault on the Tintina-Northern Rocky Mountain Trench is also related to strike-slip movement along the San Andreas Fault, the extension of the Basin and Range Province, and other extensional or strike-slip fault systems in western North America. The Tintina Fault is one of the two major fault zones paralleling the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province, the other being the Denali Fault in the Yukon, the U.S. state of Alaska and along the British Columbia Coast.
History and accessibility
First Nations have traditionally always travelled the northern Trench. There are several post-European contact travels up the northern Trench - often of large proportion. The Trench here remains mostly wild, and the northern 300km (190mi) is essentially without roads, excepting a few cat trails for fire, outfitters, or logging. It is due to several turns of fate,[clarification needed] and strategic administrative decisions since 1824,[clarification needed] that the most natural land transportation corridor in northern British Columbia has been left in a wild state. On many government maps produced since 1897,[clarification needed] indications of a passable trail have been published. However, with changes in the terrain caused by beaver dams or forest fires, and despite maintenance by guide-outfitters, the trail from Fox Lake north is often hard to find, or obliterated to all but indigenous and experienced Kaska natives. It may be more commonly used as an aviation route today.
The northern trench from the Highway 97 bridge on the Parsnip River has routes on both sides of Williston Lake to Fort Ware. The route up the east side cannot be followed due to the Peace Reach of the reservoir. The road traveler will use the gravel road up the west side of the Reservoir to Ware. Beyond that point the northbound traveller will only find a narrow cat guard (a cat guard is a primitive road constructed as a fire guard by heavy equipment-usually a bulldozer-to prevent the spread of a forest fire by creating a fuel free perimeter) for a few kilometres.
The Kaska Dena culture of Fort Ware and Lower Post refer to their ancestral use of the 300km (190mi) natural route as The Trail of The Ancient Ones. They also call it the Davie Trail honoring David Braconnier, the founding chief of the community at Ware (Fort Ware - originally called Kwadacha which the HBC named Whitewater Post)
1797 - John Finlay records the forks of the Finlay and Parsnip Rivers and ventures part way up each river. The Finlay River later comes to bear his name.
1823 to 1825 - Samuel Black was sent by the HBC north through Finlay Forks to The Fox River (Kwadacha) and returned later that season. He narrowly missed being the first white person to go all the way up the Northern Trench to the Liard River but chose not to listen to his guide - heading north westward seeking the source of the Finlay River instead. He travels far enough NW to discover the headwaters of another Trench tributary - The Turnagain River. Natives there find a marker left by Black and report it to historic Fort Halkett on the Liard River.
1831 - John Macleod of the HBC records the mouth of the Kechika River emptying out of the northern end of the Trench into the Liard near the BC-Yukon border.
1872 - Capt. William F. Butler ascends part of the Finlay River and records both the Fox River and Fox Lake to the north (Ft. Ware / Kwadacha was not yet established.)
1897 to 1898 – The Canadian government sends a police patrol under Inspector Moodie to map a possible supply route from the Peace River to the Yukon - specifically Dawson City. The patrol, assumed to have perished, eventually arrived at Fort Selkirk. They proved the viability of the route and produced a surviving map of it. (Yukon Archives)
1898 – McGregor's book The Klondike Rush Though Edmonton summarizes various sources (papers) saying up to 45 parties were reported along the route from Fox River to Sylvestre's Landing. There was also a reported drive of cattle on this route (echoed in Moodie's reports and in Kaska oral history.)
1906 – A North West Mounted Police patrol under field supervision of Inspector Constantine began the construction of the Police Trail westward from Hudson Hope and then northward up the Northern Trench from HBC's post at Fort Graham.
1907 - British Columbia Premier R. McBride intervened and asked Canada to direct the police resources to connect with the more westerly Telegraph Trail route. Under protest, the NWMP field team did so. That trail was soon abandoned due to its non-viable character. The political route departure from Fort Graham westward added 400 rugged snowy kilometres to the total distance without going any favorable ground or measurable distance closer to the north. The Davie Trail is noted to be excellent for wintering horse due to low snow accumulations.
1912 - British Columbia Magazine - prospector Bower reports Sifton Pass as the most eventual and most practicable for a railway form the Fraser River to the Yukon.
1914 - Premier McBride advocates a railway on Insp. Moodie's route according to B. Kenelly in a pamphlet 'The British Columbia Peace. Fort St John' 1936.
1926 - Whitewater Post is established by HBC. Whitewater is the translation of Kwadacha, a nearby river.
1930 to 1931 - British Columbia Department of Public Works investigates a road route over Sifton Pass.
1934 - Charles Bedaux, a noted international workplace management consultant (time and motion studies) leads and finances the Bedaux Expedition - formally known as the Bedaux Canadian Subarctic Expedition. While his advance scouts arrive at McDame Post near Good Hope Lake, the leader and entourage abandon their mission at Driftpile Creek due to fatigue, lack of horse feed, and impending winter. The controversial adventure is the subject of a 1995 Bedaux film biography titled Champagne Safari.
1942 - February a final decision was reached regarding the A, B, and C routes for a northern Highway. It will connect the North West Staging Route airfields and bypass the Northern Trench for the joint Canada-Alaska Highway Alcan Highway, alternately Alaska Highway. The three routes had been the subject of considerable economic competition between governments and communities since the Klondike Gold Rush. The A route was a Stikine option similar to Highway 37 of today. The B route favors the Trench option. The C route following the airfields east of the Rocky Mountains and then crossing to the west near the Liard River is the chosen route.
1942 - March 28 the American government initiates a highly secret survey. It was undertaken for the purpose of assessing a military railway link up the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench. It was completed on Sept 28. Nov 15 US General Somervell declines to proceed with a military railway. Canada's Major Charles presents drawings for the Northern Trench portion of a railway from Ware to Lower Post of 351.6km (218.5mi), $112,000,000 cost, with 17,000 personnel over 400 days. Of the 1217 total miles of proposed railway to Alaska, 530 are on Canadian soil and lie within the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench or the Tintina Trench.
1949 - US Congress Public Law 391 authorises a location survey for a railway from Prince George to Fairbanks. Prince George Board of Trade advocates the Trench route - the B route.
1950 - October, Canadian Transport Minister Lionel Chevrier advocates the 1942 route in a secret document to Federal Cabinet. A budget of $750,000,000 is presented.
1953 - Whitewater Post or Kwadacha of the HBC closes. Today the Kaska Dena Community of Fort Ware (Ware) remains as a full-time settlement.
1957 - Swedish industrial savant Axel Wenner-Gren advocates resource mega-developments for the Peace River area. Among his proposals he envisions a monorail up the Northern Trench. Some area proposals came to partial fruition but the monorail did not.
1960 to 1967 - The Government of BC declines the Northern Trench as their strategic railway choice, favoring instead a route to the west similar to the telegraph route. Part of the reason is that the Lower Finlay and Parsnip River portions of the Northern Trench would be flooded by the damming of the Peace River. Reservoir land acquisition commences. Their selected westerly rail route - the Dease Lake Extension along the A Route - has been, in part, abandoned, and in lesser part been reopened to Takla Siding for logging use.
1964 - US Congress tables the NAWAPA proposal by Parsons Engineering Group - would see flooding of the portions of the Trench as part of a continental-scale water diversion.
1971 - Sir Ranulph Fiennes descends the Trench from Kechika mouth - mostly on foot, partly solo as part of his circum-polar expedition . For this and other feats he is later recorded by Guinness Book of Records as the World's 'Greatest Living Explorer.'
1981 - 'Skook' Davidson; long time outfitter proposes a 'federal' national park in the Northern Trench.
1998 - After several years of round table discussions The British Columbia Government takes first legislative steps to establish a 'provincial' Muskwa-Kechika Management Area It covers an area considerably larger than the floor of the Trench and its immediate tributaries.
1999 - Karsten Heuer completes the final section of the Y2Y hike (Yellowstone to Yukon) at Lower Post
2000 - Extension of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area into the Northern Trench. Much of the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench's furthest reach is within this British Columbia Protected Area. Significant exposure is given to the M-KMA in the November 2008 National Geographic Magazine as a follow-up to their partial funding of a recent expedition to Gataga Pass.
In 2009 context the Northern Trench could have, and might yet, become the preferred route for the 120-year-old concept of a Canada Alaska Railway concept. Discussions among feasibility experts still do not seem to favor the B Route despite it being lower, more direct, fewer major river crossings and considerably less snow.
Southern Rocky Mountain Trench
Geology
The Southern Rocky Mountain Trench was created mainly by Cenozoic-aged extension (normal faulting). What little strike-slip movement that is found in the southern trench is not considered significant. The extensional faulting was nonetheless substantial, having extended as deep as 13.5km (8.4mi). The southern trench also differs from the northern trench in that it is more sinuous and is asymmetrical in cross-section (perpendicular to its length). The western side of the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench is more subdued and irregular than the east side. During late Paleozoic to Mesozoic time, rapid sediment deposition and subsidence to the west transitioned in the area of the modern Rocky Mountain Trench into a stable continental shelf in the east. The Nevadan Orogeny destroyed the western wedge of sedimentary rocks during Jurassic to middle Cretaceous time, thrusting them up into metamorphic fold belts. Currently, strata on either side of the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench consist mainly of Precambrian and Paleozoic metasedimentary and sedimentary rocks. Within the trench are unconsolidated Cenozoic sandstones and conglomerates.
The southern Rocky Mountain Trench comprises approximately one half of the Trench in British Columbia and includes three regions, the Robson Valley, Columbia Valley and East Kootenay (from north to south). It hosts dozens of communities and two major reservoirs - Kinbasket Lake, and Lake Koocanusa (an acronym of Kootenay/Canada/USA.) There are intersections with two other trench features. At the approximate midpoint of Kinbasket Lake, the now submerged Columbia River exits the Trench in an almost southerly direction toward Revelstoke and flows beyond to its point of exit from Canada south of Trail BC. West of Donald BC, the Beaver river flows in from the south - but it represents the intersection of the lesser but impressive feature called the Purcell Trench. The Purcell Trench as it proceeds southward becomes the valley of the Duncan River and Duncan and Kootenay Lakes.
The Columbia Valley is part of the Southern Rocky Mountain TrenchGeologic map of the Purcell and Rocky Mountain Trenches within the U.S.
There are four geographic segments of the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench:
The segment of the Trench encompassing the uppermost court of the Fraser River from east of Prince George and continuing southeastward to the town of Valemount is known as the Robson Valley, named after Mount Robson which overlooks its southern end. Valemount is the Westerly portal to the Yellowhead Pass.
From Valemount and Canoe Southeastward to the eastern egress of Rogers Pass at Donald, BC just north of the town of Golden the Trench cradles the waters of Kinbasket Lake the reservoir created by Mica Dam; this region before the reservoir was part of the route of the interprovincial highway, once known as the Big Bend Highway, prior to the 1960s opening of the Roger's Pass section of the Trans-Canada.
The Trench from Golden extending SE to the headwaters of the Columbia River at Columbia Lake is known as the Columbia Valley. Golden is the westerly portal to the Kicking Horse Pass on Highway #1 eastbound to Alberta.
The southernmost Canadian part of the Trench is the core of a region known as the East Kootenay, comprising the upper of the two Canadian portions of the valley of the Kootenay River. Here, near Cranbrook, British Columbia, the Trench is much wider than to the northwest, forming more of a broad basin than the U-shaped valley which typifies most of the Trench elsewhere from Columbia Lake northwards to the Liard. This segment bifurcates near Wasa 100km north of the US border. The off-shooting western fork contains the City of Cranbrook affords access to the nearby City of Kimberley. Elko is the westerly portal to the Crowsnest Pass on Highway 3 eastbound to Alberta.
The southward transborder extension of the Trench into Montana is the primary containment for Lake Koocanusa, a Kootenay River reservoir created by the Libby Dam near Libby, Montana.[1]
Culture and economy
The large valley and tributaries have always offered an economy based on ranching and logging. This has been supplemented by fortuitous locations of several mines - often in side valleys and producing lead, zinc, coal and gypsum. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) also constructed a spur line which extends northward up the southern Trench between Cranbrook and Golden. This serves to interconnect the southerly rail route of the Crowsnest Pass to the CPR mainline through Rogers Pass. Today it carries Crowsnest coal to Tsawwassen for export. A southerly rail-link through Yahk enables freight shipments into Idaho and the Western US.
Tourism has become an active force in the economy. The Southern Trench is also known for a number of ski resorts in the trench or in the nearby tributary valleys. These destinations include Fairmont, Panorama, Kimberley, Purden, Kicking Horse and the original Bugaboo heli-ski lodge. Numerous other ski touring and back country lodges are also found here. The summer sports of golf, boating, fishing, and hiking round out the appeal to a growing weekend and permanent recreational population.
Hunting, fishing, off-roading, and camping will continue to be attractive pastimes. These include guided activities and individual pursuit of the area.
The generous mix of low elevation, good climate, fine scenery, diverse recreation and resort accommodation has fostered a vacation-based real estate industry for communities and rural areas surrounding Cranbrook, Windermere, Invermere, Radium, and Golden. There are many other local unincorporated communities and post offices.
Settlements and localities
The Trench has hosted only a few communities. From north to south they are:
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.
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 Liard River of the North American boreal forest flows through Yukon, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, Canada. Rising in the Saint Cyr Range of the Pelly Mountains in southeastern Yukon, it flows 1,115 km (693 mi) southeast through British Columbia, marking the northern end of the Rocky Mountains and then curving northeast back into Yukon and Northwest Territories, draining into the Mackenzie River at Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories. The river drains approximately 277,100 km2 (107,000 sq mi) of boreal forest and muskeg.
The Selkirk Mountains are a mountain range spanning the northern portion of the Idaho Panhandle, eastern Washington, and southeastern British Columbia which are part of a larger grouping of mountains, the Columbia Mountains. They begin at Mica Peak and Krell Hill near Spokane and extend approximately 320 km north from the border to Kinbasket Lake, at the now-inundated location of the onetime fur company post Boat Encampment. The range is bounded on its west, northeast and at its northern extremity by the Columbia River, or the reservoir lakes now filling most of that river's course. From the Columbia's confluence with the Beaver River, they are bounded on their east by the Purcell Trench, which contains the Beaver River, Duncan River, Duncan Lake, Kootenay Lake and the Kootenay River. The Selkirks are distinct from, and geologically older than, the Rocky Mountains. The neighboring Monashee and Purcell Mountains, and sometimes including the Cariboo Mountains to the northwest, are also part of the larger grouping of mountains known as the Columbia Mountains. A scenic highway loop, the International Selkirk Loop, encircles the southern portions of the mountain range.
Sekani or Tse’khene are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in the Northern Interior of British Columbia. Their territory includes the Finlay and Parsnip River drainages of the Rocky Mountain Trench. The neighbours of the Sekani are the Babine to the west, Dakelh to the south, Dunneza (Beaver) to the east, and Kaska and Tahltan, to the north, all Athabaskan peoples. In addition, due to the westward spread of the Plains Cree in recent centuries, their neighbours to the east now include Cree communities.
Yukon is in the northwestern corner of Canada and is bordered by Alaska and the Northwest Territories. The sparsely populated territory abounds with natural scenery, snowmelt lakes and perennial white-capped mountains, including many of Canada's highest mountains. The territory's climate is Arctic in territory north of Old Crow, subarctic in the region, between Whitehorse and Old Crow, and humid continental climate south of Whitehorse and in areas close to the British Columbia border. Most of the territory is boreal forest with tundra being the main vegetation zone only in the extreme north and at high elevations.
The Kaska or Kaska Dena are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living mainly in northern British Columbia and the southeastern Yukon in Canada. The Kaska language, originally spoken by the Kaska, is an Athabaskan language.
Samuel Black was a Scottish fur trader and explorer, a clerk in the New North Nest Company (XYC) and Wintering Partner in the North West Company (NWC), and later clerk, chief trader, and chief factor in the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) for the Columbia District. In 1824, he explored the Finlay River and its tributaries in present-day north-central British Columbia, Canada, including the Muskwa, Omineca and Stikine for the HBC. His journals were published by the Hudson's Bay Record Society in 1955.
The Kechika River is a tributary of the Liard River, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) long, in northern British Columbia, Canada. The Kechika flows generally northwest through the northernmost section of the Rocky Mountain Trench before turning east to join the Liard, a major branch of the Mackenzie River system. The river's 22,700 km2 (8,800 sq mi) drainage basin is characterized by high glaciated peaks, boreal forest, and open tundra. With no settlements, roads or dams along its course, the Kechika is considered "one of British Columbia's finest examples of wilderness and undisturbed wildlife habitat."
The Muskwa River flows 257 kilometres (160 mi) through northern British Columbia, Canada. It is a major tributary of the Fort Nelson River - part of the Mackenzie River system. The river rises at Fern Lake in the Bedaux Pass in the Northern Rocky Mountains. From there, it flows generally east, then north, and then east again to meet with the Fort Nelson River just east of the town of Fort Nelson. The river drops approximately 1,100 metres (3,600 ft), its course taking it down the Rocky Mountain foothills through sub-alpine and boreal forest to meander across the forest and muskegs of the vast Liard River plains. From mouth to headwater, prominent tributaries include the Prophet River, Tuchodi River, and Gathto Creek. Much of the upper portions of this wilderness river and its watershed are located in the Northern Rocky Mountains Provincial Park, which is part of the larger Muskwa-Kechika Management Area. The region is a popular wilderness recreation destination.
Kwadacha, also known as Fort Ware or simple Ware, is an aboriginal community in northern British Columbia, Canada, located in the Rocky Mountain Trench at the confluence of the Finlay, Kwadacha and Fox Rivers, in the Rocky Mountain Trench upstream from the end of the Finlay Reach of Williston Lake. The population is about 350. It is in the federal electoral riding of Prince George-Peace River.
The Canadian Rockies are a segment of the North American Rocky Mountains found in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.
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 Shuswap Indian Band is a member government of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and also of the Ktunaxa Kinbasket Tribal Council, located in the East Kootenay region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its main reserve, the Shuswap Indian Reserve, is located one mile north of Invermere, British Columbia in the Columbia Valley region of the Rocky Mountain Trench on the upper Columbia River, on the other side of the Selkirk Mountains from other Secwepemc bands. It was created when the government of the then-Colony of British Columbia established an Indian reserve system in the 1860s. Though a member of the Ktunaxa Kinbasket Tribal Council and intermarried with the Ktunaxa bands in the same region, the members of the band are ethnically Secwepemc (Shuswap).
Sifton Pass, 1012 m (3320 ft), is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountain Trench in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, forming the divide between the Fox and Kechika Rivers, and therefore between the drainage basins of the Finlay and Liard Rivers. It also forms a division point between the Muskwa Ranges of the Northern Rockies to its east, and the Cassiar Mountains to its west.
Horneline Creek Provincial Park is a provincial park in far northern British Columbia, Canada. It is located west of the Kechika River about 130 km south of Lower Post and 30 km north of Denetiah Provincial Park and southwest of the community of Liard River.
The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area is a provincially-run tract of land in the far north of British Columbia. It has an advisory board that counsels the government on land-use decisions. Established by provincial government legislation in 1998, the area is meant to be preserved as a wild area, but development is not outright forbidden; the land is divided into different zones, with varying levels of protection, although the whole area is to be used according to an overall plan. The original concept called for 25% of the land to be turned into provincial parks, 60% to become "special management zones", and 15% to become "special wild land zones", where logging would be prohibited. The original size of the M-KMA was 4,450,000 hectares. However, in 2000, with the approval of the Mackenzie Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP), over 1,900,000 hectares were added to the M-KMA for a total area of 6,400,000 hectares —an area slightly smaller than the US state of Maine, or the entire island of Ireland, or seven times the size of Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming.
The Tintina Trench is a large northwest-southeast valley extending through Yukon, Canada. It is a prominent topographic lineament along the northern extension of the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench in British Columbia and it has its origin from the Tintina Fault.
The Police Trail was built across parts of northern British Columbia as an alternate, overland route to the Yukon gold fields in 1897. It was used by only a few miners during the Yukon gold rush and fell into disrepair, but parts are still used by local hunting guides, hunters, outfitters and trappers.
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