Afm 2012 05 book nre cover intro2

TransCanada Ecotours® Northern Rockies H

ighway G

uide

Let the Northern Rockies Ecotour set your compass for a remarkable journey of discovery through the northern part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage site. 265 photos, 22 maps and 133 Ecopoints present the region’s rich First Nations history, exploits of early fur-traders, artists, mission-aries, tourists, and scientists, and the ongoing interplay of people, wildlife and their inspiring mountain ecosystem. The authors draw on current research to discuss key environmental issues such as climate change and biodiversity conservation.

You will explore the eastern foothills (Chapter One) ending in historic Grande Cache, then travel west on the Yellowhead Highway (Chapter Two) following major rivers across the continental divide from Hinton to Valemount, British Columbia. In the concluding Chapter Three, the Ecotour turns southwards from Jasper along the spectacular Icefields Parkway through the Rockies, ending near Lake Louise.

See the full route map on page 5

“This book wonderfully

interlaces the physical,

biological and historical

qualities of one of

Canada’s iconic regions.

An entertaining but highly

educational account that

will captivate all who

traverse the Northern

Rockies be it by bike, car,

train or vicariously from

their living room.”

nik lopoukhine chair iucn world commission on protected areas

P.O. Box 6330 1176 Switzer Drive Hinton, Alberta T7V 1X6 Canada

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Discover the secrets of a spectacular Canadian landscape with the TransCanada Ecotours®

Northern Rockies Highway Guide

printed in canada

A lavishly illustrated driving guide to the landscapes, geology, ecology, culture, people and history of the Northern Rockies Region of Alberta and British Columbia.

$24.95

ecotour.foothillsri.ca

133 points of interest, 265 photos, 22 maps that include: Hinton – Cadomin – Grande Cache – Jasper – Valemount – and the Icefields Parkway

Fred Pollett • robert udell •Peter murPhy • tom Peterson

Northern Rockies Ecotour

EcoTour INTERIOR Layout no 5.ind1 1 3/27/12 1:10:53 PM

Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Eastern Foothills

1-1 Green Square, Hinton 16

1-2 The Beaver Boardwalk 17

1-3 Hinton Training Centre:

The Forestry Trail, Fire Training, Forest Research 22

1-4 Mountain Bike Park and Trails 27

1-5 The Natural Resources Interpretive Park 28

1-6 Where Trails Cross 29

1-7 The Managed Forest 32

1-8 Chinook’s Christmas Fire 33

1-9 Gregg River and the Greggs 35

1-10 Mining and Reclamation 37

1-11 Luscar: Coal Mining Interpretive Site 38

1-12 Cadomin 40

1-13 Cadomin Cave: Bats at Risk 42

1-14 The McLeod River and the First Tourist 43

1-15 Whitehorse Creek Recreation Area 46

1-16 Mountain Park Cemetery 47

1-17 Whitehorse Wildland Provincial Park 49

1-18 The Cardinal Divide 50

1-19 Gregg Cabin Recreation Area 52

1-20 McLeod River Silviculture Interpretive Trail 53

1-21 Anderson Creek − Stream Protection 54

1-22 The Athabasca River 56

1-23 Old Entrance 57

1-24 Brûlé Lake - An Array of Landscapes and History 61

1-25 William A. Switzer Provincial Park -

The Athabasca Lookout Nordic Centre 67

1-26 Kelley’s Bathtub: Switzer Park Interpretive Centre 68

1-27 Healthy Landscapes: Willmore Wilderness Park 69

1-28 Old Lower Road 72

1-29 Caribou Habitat Experiment − Growing Lichen 73


1-30 Berland River: Caribou Country 74

1-31 Caribou − Icon of the North in Decline 77

1-32 Pierre Grey’s Lakes Provincial Park and the Hamlet of Muskeg 79

1-33 Muskeg River Graveyard 81

1-34 Bull Trout − Muskeg River − Muskeg Falls 82

1-35 Grande Cache Lake 83

1-36 Grande Cache Tourism and Interpretive Centre 84

1-37 The Sulphur Gates 88

Chapter 2 Yellowhead Across the Rocky Mountains

2-1 Moberly Cemetery 93

2-2 Overlander Rest Stop 93

2-3 The Portal to Jasper − Jasper Park Gate 95

2-4 Fiddle River 96

2-5 Pocahontas 98

2-6 Ashlar Ridge 99

2-7 Miette Hot Springs 100

2-8 Roche Miette and Disaster Point 101

2-9 Jasper House II: National Historic Site 105

2-10 Talbot Lake Picnic Site 109

2-11 Jasper Lake 111

2-12 Cold Sulphur Spring 113

2-13 Snaring River Bridge 114

2-14 Henry House Flats 116

2-15 The Palisades Stewardship Education Centre 119

2-16 The Moberly Homestead and the Métis Exodus 120

2-17 Palisades Picnic Site 122

2-18 The Brigades and the Express 124

2-19 Meeting of the Three Rivers − Turnoff to Maligne Lake Road 126

2-20 Jasper Park Lodge 127

2-21 The Skyline Trail 128

2-22 Athabasca Panorama 130

2-23 Maligne Canyon and Trail System 131

2-24 Medicine Lake Viewpoint 132

2-25 Rosemary’s Rock 135

2-26 Maligne Lake 136

2-27 Douglas-Fir at Pine Bungalows 141

2-28 Where’s Henry House? – Old Fort Point 142

2-29 Jasper Information Centre National Historic Site 145

2-30 Discovery Trail 146


2-31 The Jasper-Yellowhead Museum 147

2-32 Pyramid Lake Road 148

2-33 The Church of St. Mary and St. George 151

2-34 Miette River Bridge 152

2-35 Miette River Lookout 154

2-36 Yellowhead Pass, National Historic Site 155

2-37 Internment Camp Memorial Historical Site 157

2-38 Lucerne 157

2-39 Fraser Crossing 158

2-40 The Mountain Pine Beetle and Moose Lake 159

2-41 Overlander Falls 162

2-42 Mt. Robson: The Berg Lake Trail 162

2-43 Terry Fox Memorial 165

2-44 Rearguard Falls 166

2-45 Tête Jaune Cache 167

2-46 Jackman Flats Provincial Park 170

2-47 Valemount 171

Chapter 3 The Icefields Parkway

3-1 Miette River Bridge 177

3-2 Whistlers 178

3-3 Wapiti and Wolves 180

3-4 Athabasca River Bridge 181

3-5 Prairie de la Vache 182

3-6 Whirlpool Valley Viewpoint 183

3-7 Athabasca Falls: Alternate Route 184

3-8 Up the Whirlpool to Athabasca Pass 185

3-9 Mystery Trees 187

3-10 Meeting of the Waters 188

3-11 Mt. Edith Cavell 189

3-12 Marmot Basin 190

3-13 The Rupicaprin and/or the Mountain Goat? 191

3-14 Mt. Fryatt Viewpoint 193

3-15 Mt. Christie Viewpoint: Moberly’s Bend 194

3-16 Sunwapta Falls 195

3-17 Bubbling Springs 196

3-18 Poboktan Creek: The A.P. Coleman Story 196

3-19 Jonas Rockslide 199

3-20 Beauty Creek and the Beauty Creek Flats 201

3-21 Stutfield Glacier Viewpoint 203


3-22 Tangle Falls 203

3-23 Sunwapta Canyon Viewpoint: Old Trees 204

3-24 The Shooting Gallery 204

3-25 Columbia Icefield and the Icefield Centre 205

3-26 Wilcox Pass 207

3-27 Sunwapta Pass 208

3-28 Parker Ridge Trail 209

3-29 Nigel Creek − Collie’s View 210

3-30 North Saskatchewan Valley Viewpoint 212

3-31 Big Bend 212

3-32 Weeping Wall 213

3-33 Graveyard Flats 213

3-34 Mt. Amery, Mt. Saskatchewan Viewpoint 214

3-35 Rampart Ponds 215

3-36 Glacier Lake Trail: David Thompson Walked Here 215

3-37 Saskatchewan Crossing … and Howse Pass 216

3-38 Tephra, Fingerprints of a Volcano 220

3-39 Mistaya Canyon and Howse Pass 222

3-40 Lower Waterfowl Lake 223

3-41 Upper Waterfowl Lake 224

3-42 Peyto Glacier Viewpoint 224

3-43 Bow Summit/Pass and Peyto Lake 226

3-44 Subalpine Meadow 228

3-45 Num-Ti-Jah Lodge on Bow Lake 229

3-46 Crowfoot Glacier Viewpoint 232

3-47 Hector Lake 233

3-48 Mt. Hector 235

3-49 Herbert Lake 236

References 237

Index 239


Text Contributions: Research and Review

David Andison, Tom Archibald, Denise Barry, Susan Berry, Dave Birrell, Jules Blais, Rick Bonar, Guy Brassard, David Carnegie–13th Earl of Southesk, Allan Carroll, Boyd Case, Bill Cheliak, Roger Couture, Mike Demuth, Mike Dillon, Denis Faucher, Jessica Desany Ganong, Alison Girling, Adam Gossell, Joyce Gould, Brian Haddon, Keith Hammer, Brian Kahn, Werner Kurz, Lisa Jones, Archie Landals, Martin Legault, Mary Luger, Sean Kinney, Beth MacCallum, Bruce Mayer, Richard McCrea, Sherrill Meropoulis, Ron Peletier, Amber Pollett, Sandra Pollett, Meghan Power, Dennis Quintilio, Lisa Sherlock, Dave Smith, Gordon Stenhouse, Victoria Suwalski, Patrick Suwalski, Scott Sunderwald, Marc Symbaluk, Diana Tomback, Joan Udell, Jan Volney, Ken Walker, Kim Weir, Cliff White, Stephen Wolfe, Dave Winston, Richard Wuorinen, Chris Yorath.

A special thanks to D.F.W. (Doug) Pollard and Robert (Bob) Stevenson who were responsible for pioneering and producing the first Ecotours in Canada, in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Both have been key contributors to the Northern Rockies Ecotour; Doug through his research and text, and Bob as a reviewer from start to finish. And our particular appreciation to Ben Gadd who, in providing a manuscript edit, also contributed significant and valued text changes and additions.

Finally, although he is one of the authors of this publication, the other members of the team recognize the privilege and value of working with Tom Peterson, whose dedication to, historical knowledge of, and library of materials relating to the region are quite simply remarkable. Tom’s knowledge is generously available to all.

With apologies to those we may have inadvertently omitted. Without the input and expertise of all contributors this book would be much diminished.

Acknowledgements


Walk softly, lest in your haste you miss a thousand things of beauty.david m. baird, geologist, writer, and poet –beauty in the rocks: the photography of david m. baird

Roche Miette. brian carnell


Introduction


You’re about to embark on a remarkable journey.

You’ll be travelling within and around the borders of the northern part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Canadian Rocky Moun-tain Parks World Heritage site. The natural exhibits are immense, inspir-ing, and ever-changing. Share in the feats of determination and persever-ance of those who passed through these mountain corridors in centuries past. While having fun, turn your brain on to the knowledge available from this special place – knowledge of the events that created and shaped this land, the peoples past and pres-ent, and the ecological challenges of climate change and sustainable man-agement. This journey will provide information to distill, use, and share with others.

Much of the Northern Rockies Ecotour route lies within the World Heritage site, chosen for its outstand-ing universal value and importance to present and future generations. If you limit your Ecotour experience to the World Heritage site you’ll be amply rewarded. But the entire Ecotour offers you much more as it ventures outside the World Heritage site into surrounding provincial parks, towns, mining sites, and forests. It’s your chance to gain an even greater under-standing of the northern Rockies.

Where can you begin? You can select any of the “Ecopoints” and continue from there. The five anchor points are Hinton, Grande Cache, Jasper, Valemount, and the junction of the Icefields Parkway and the Southern Trans-Canada Highway near Lake Louise.

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In this book we chose to begin the Ecotour story in the town of Hinton, aptly called the “Gateway to the Rockies.” Why Hinton? Hinton is at a crossroad of the trails that helped define Canada. Most of these ancient and not-so-ancient trails are unknown to many who pass by.

Centuries before Europeans saw these mountains, a south-north Aboriginal trail followed along the eastern foothills of the Rockies up to Peace River country. This trail was crossed near here by an east- west trail through the Athabasca Valley, linking the prairie grasslands with the Pacific Ocean.

For new travellers from the east, who were following the Athabasca waterway or overland trails, this was a place for rest and contemplation before venturing into the mountains. After a long hard trek across prairie, woodland, and muskeg, they looked westward toward the Rockies, their exhilaration tempered by apprehen-sion of the unknown. What adven-ture waited beyond this mountain portal?

The RouteThe Northern Rockies Ecotour is presented here in three chapters. Each chapter is shaped by the place it occupies in the universe of the Rocky Mountains.

The Eastern FoothillsChapter 1 is about landscapes, the people of the foothills–whose cultures define this region–and the choices made and being made within the landscape.

The tour first includes the Hinton area and then the north-south trail from Hinton to Cadomin along


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Highway 40 South, and from Hinton to Grande Cache on Highway 40 North. Highway 40 South takes you into the Coal Branch to Cadomin and beyond, past the ghost town of Mountain Park onto the Cardinal Divide, then loops back to Hinton. North on Highway 40, the Ecotour crosses the Athabasca River and, after a side trip to the hamlets of Entrance and Brûlé, carries on northward to Grande Cache.

Yellowhead Across the Rocky MountainsChapter 2 sifts through the rich episodes of natural and human his-tory that unfolded in this east-west corridor defined by the rivers flow-ing to the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

The tour includes the journey west on the Yellowhead Highway into the World Heritage site, through the Jasper National Park portal bounded by Roche Miette and Roche Ronde.

Along the way there are side trips to Miette Hot Springs, the Moberly Homestead, Maligne Lake, and the town of Jasper. From Jasper we continue west through the legend-ary Yellowhead Pass, across Mount Robson Provincial Park to the west side of the Rocky Mountains, reaching the Rocky Mountain Trench near Tête Jaune Cache in British Columbia, and ending south of Tête Jaune Cache in the town of Valemount.

The Icefields ParkwayChapter � takes us through the heart of the Rocky Mountains, with its gallery of natural treasures high-lighted by great icefields. The jour-ney begins at Jasper and continues south to the Columbia Icefield, into Banff National Park, ending at the junction of the Icefields Parkway and the southern Trans-Canada Highway near Lake Louise.

The Portal into Jasper National Park. brian carnell


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graphic image of north america courtesy nasa / jpl-caltech

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ALBERTA

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Tête Jaune Cache

Jasper

Robb

Cadomin

Valemount

Brûlé

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David Thompson Highway to Rocky Mountain Houseand Red Deer

Grande Cache

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Chapter 3 RoutesOther Highways

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From the Beginning …The town of Hinton sits just inside the boundary of the plains to the east and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains that begin at the west edge of town.

Why is the vista to the east so flat, so rolling here, and so rugged to the west? Geologists have researched the rocks and origins of the Rocky Mountains, and this work is summa-rized by Chris Yorath and Ben Gadd in their book Of Rocks, Mountains and Jasper: A Visitor’s Guide to the Geology of Jasper National Park and in Chris Yorath’s book How Old Is That Mountain: A Visitor’s Guide to the Geology of Banff and Yoho Nation-al Parks. The authors take us back in time and unfold the geologic story, answering many of our questions. A second work by Ben Gadd, Canadian Rockies Geology Road Tours, is a valu-able and complementary reference. We draw on these books extensively throughout this Ecotour.

The Story BeginsAs you stand just outside the Green Square Information Centre in Hin-ton, take in the world around you. You’re standing 3.5 km east of the eastern foothills of the Rocky Moun-tains. Incredible as it may seem, this area once stood as high above sea level as the mountains you see to the west.

To set the scene let’s go back 170 million years. There are no moun-tains, and the land is flat in all direc-tions. Off the coast of western North America, sediments washed off the continent have been accumulat-ing over the past 750 million years, forming a wide continental shelf. The layers of sediments are about

6

15 km thick, and, under that enor-mous pressure, the loose sediments have been transformed into a layered mass of sedimentary rock, sitting atop a granitic base that is the core of the continent–the Precambrian Shield. An immense force, caused by the collision of Earth’s moving tectonic plates is about to shear this thick underwater sedimentary layer cake off its granite base.

A massive plate of Earth’s crust un-derlying the Pacific Ocean has been speeding northeastward (at about one mm a week) for many millions of years. It has just collided with the northwestward-moving continent of North America. Over the next 100 million years or so, this collision and others will raise the land, like an ocean swell slowly moving eastward.

The sedimentary rock forming the continental shelf, caught between colliding crustal plates, is sheared loose from its granitic base and pushed upward and to the northeast, as Yorath and Gadd say, like “a stack of rugs across a hardwood floor.” The mass of rock begins to wrinkle and fold, breaking into thrust sheets, each sheet several kilometres thick, stacked one on top of the other.

A depression forms at the wave front because of the weight of the thrust sheets. Over millions of years sediments eroding from the moun-tains on the west and the plains to the east fill this depression. As the wave continues eastward, the sedi-ments in the trough are also pushed upward to become part of the stack of thrust sheets. In this way, the eastern Rockies and the foothills are formed. Then, 50 to 60 million-years ago, the pressure ceases and moun-tain-building is over.


7

When the pressure stopped, the waves of rock didn’t flatten out; they remained to form the continental spine of western North America. Where Hinton is now was a Tibet-like highland at an elevation as high as the mountains to the west are now. What happened to the Hinton mountains? The sedimentary rocks that made up these easternmost mountains were soft and more easily eroded than the hard, more resistant limestone mountains to the west, so, over millions of years, the mountains in the Hinton area were worn down to become the rounded foothills.

Erosion has shaped the Rocky Mountain landscape, as millions of years of mountain-building were also accompanied by millions of years of erosion. As soon as the sedimentary rocks rose above sea level, the forces of nature –rain, running water, mov-ing ice, wind, frost, chemical decay –began to erode them. In fact, more rock has been removed from the Rocky Mountains by erosion than remains today. Does that mean the Rockies are less than half as high as they used to be? No, because as mountains erode, the weight of the rock becomes less and Earth’s crust, which was depressed by the massive weight, rebounds. Just as a ship floats higher as it’s unloaded, the remain-ing mountains rose higher, and they’re still rising today as erosion continues. Also, as the two-km-thick, Ice Age glacier melted over the past 18,000 years, more rebound has occurred. Remarkably, although the Rockies have lost eight to 10 kilome-tres of sedimentary rock to erosion, they have maintained much of their height.

With expected rates of erosion in future, however, the Rocky Moun-tains may be gone in a mere 50 to 60 million years, reduced again to a roll-ing plain – unless, of course, there’s another major tectonic upheaval!

The Rocky MountainsGeologists have divided the Rockies, east to west, into three distinct phys-iographic zones: the foothills, front ranges, and main ranges. Here in Hinton, we’re at the eastern edge of the most easterly zone, the foothills, which vary from 10-75 km across.

The ranges of mountains vis-ible to the west of Hinton are the front ranges, located in Jasper National Park. About 30 km wide, these mountains consist of a series of thrust sheets arranged like roof shingles, inclined to the southwest. The dominant colour of the front ranges is grey – the colour of the weathered surface of the limestone they are made of.

The third zone of the Rockies is the main ranges, about 75 km wide. The town of Jasper sits in the main ranges. Here, the stack of thrust sheets was highest. Much of the rock was heavily folded deep down, but closer to the surface, in peaks such as Pyramid Mountain and Mt. Edith Cavell, the layers lie at gentle angles. The sedimentary strata have a layer-cake look, in brown and red-dish hues. This is where the greatest erosion took place. Older Cambrian and Precambrian rocks are exposed in places.

In Chapters 1 and 3 the routes run parallel to the mountain ranges, but in Chapter 2 the route cuts across the Rocky Mountain ranges. The geological differences are striking.


Rocks of the RockiesGranitic rock, so characteristic of the Precambrian Shield of eastern Canada – particularly along the Trans-Canada Highway north of the Great Lakes – is less commonly exposed at the surface in western Canada. Throughout much of the Ecotour, the Precambrian Shield lies about 9 km beneath our feet. The Rocky Mountains sit atop the granitic core of the continent and, as we have discussed, the exposed rocks are almost entirely sedimentary.

Geologists explain that the sedimentary rocks consist mainly of either clastics or carbonates. Clastics are made up of erosion products like sand grains, pebbles, and other par-ticles, which form sandstone, shale, and conglomerate rocks. Grains of quartz sand are common in the main ranges, forming the very hard quartzite that makes up many peaks in the western part of the Rockies. Most carbonates, by comparison, consist mainly of calcium with or without magnesium chemically bound to the carbonate ion, CO

3.

Carbonates are nearly always depos-ited in seawater through the action of marine life, especially cyanobacte-ria (used to be called bluegreen algae ), and true algae. Larger organ-isms like clams and corals contribute their calcareous hard parts. Carbon-ates form limestone and dolostone (a sedimentary rock made of the mineral dolomite) of Precambrian age, which are common in the World Heritage site and surrounding area, and where fossils of those lifeforms can be found.

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Ice and FireThe interplay of ice and fire can be seen throughout the Ecotour. By understanding these forces, we can gain insights into their roles in shap-ing the landscape as well as find out more about the broader global issues of climate change, biodiversity con-servation, and managing freshwater resources.

IceAt some points on the Ecotour, you’ll see–and if you choose, have hands-on experience with–glacial ice. Most of Canada has been under several kilometres of ice, not once but repeatedly over the past two mil-lion years. The last continental-scale glaciation melted away a mere 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.

Globally, 70 per cent of all fresh-water is stored in the form of glacial ice, permafrost, or permanent snow. Only Antarctica and Greenland have more glacial ice than Canada does today. In Canada, it is crudely esti-mated that as much water is locked up in glacial ice as there is in liquid form in all our lakes and rivers.

From space, the bright white patches of snow and ice in the po-lar regions and mountain chains shine like beacons, their brilliant surfaces reflecting the sun’s radia-tion. In this way the glacial ice acts as a global air conditioner, keeping the surface temperature of the planet in balance–(Environment Canada)

When part of this reflective snow cover is lost, more solar energy is absorbed by the darker land, caus-ing more melting–a chain of events known as “positive feedback.”


9

In this case, the result is not nec-essarily positive. As our climate warms, the balance between water in liquid and solid form is changing in Canada.

The Rocky Mountains attract millions of visitors each year, many drawn to the spectacular beauty of alpine glaciers and icefi elds. A few come to study the links between gla-ciers, climate, and Canada’s water re-sources. Some glaciologists describe the alpine glacial ice found through-out the Ecotour as “young, warm, and active” as compared to the much older and colder Arctic glaciers and ice caps. Ice has existed off and on in the Rocky Mountains for millions of years. The glacial ice is a store of information about ancient tempera-tures, pollen rain, and air chemistry. The information of past climates may help to forecast changes we may expect in the future.

In 1911 Philadelphia naturalist, artist, and explorer of the Canadian Rockies, Mary Schäffer (Ecopoints

2-21 and 2-26), concerned about the coming of the railway, was not optimistic about future events in the Rocky Mountains. She wrote:

…the virgin valleys will soon be a thing of the past… this will bring the timber-cruiser, the hunter, the fast disappearing game will be ex-tinct, and the Indian will be driven back to his reservation; fi res will sweep through the virgin valleys and there is but one satisfaction – what are they going to do to get rid of those fi elds and fi elds of glaciers.

To date the forests and wildlife of the region have remained largely intact. With global warming, however, “they” may have found the way to eliminate Mary Schäffer’s one satis-faction – the icefi elds and glaciers.

The entire Ecotour landscape has been sculpted by ice. Valley glaciers, such as the Athabasca Glacier, fl ow into pre-existing stream valleys, which are usually V shaped,

Cirques and Arêtes along the Icefi elds Parkway. fred pollett

artist, and explorer of the Canadian Rockies, Mary Schäffer (Ecopoints

into pre-existing stream valleys, which are usually V shaped,

Cirques and Arêtes along the Icefi elds Parkway.


widening them to U shaped. A more common feature is the cirque glacier (such as Angel Glacier on Mt. Edith Cavell), which erodes a horseshoe-shaped basin (a cirque) in the side of the mountain. Other features caused by the erosion of multiple cirque glaciers include long serrated ridges (arêtes) and pointy peaks (horns). These features will be highlighted along the route.

FireFire is a natural feature of the northern forests of Canada, and the Ecotour area is no exception. As soon as the ice retreated, 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, and forest vegetation was re-established, there was fire. Near Pyramid Lake in Jasper, an old Douglas fir bears the scars of no less than 9 fire events. With climatic warming, we can expect that drought and fires will become more common in this area.

This is a dire forecast. Since the formation of Jasper National Park a century ago, fire as a natural agent of forest renewal has been suppressed. Much of the forest is now past the time when it would normally have been renewed by wildfires. Park managers are concerned, because without periodic natural fires, dropped branches and needles accu-mulating on the forest floor provide fuel that increases the risk and com-pounds the severity of catastrophic wildfires. Excluding fire from the park has decreased biodiversity and increases the risk of losing wildlife and plants that depend on fire to renew ecosystems. For these reasons, Parks Canada specialists are rein-troducing fire into park ecosystems through prescribed burning.

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The Great Divides“The person interested only in the beauty of the scene will find it even more moving when he [or she] reflects on the intricately woven pat-tern of events that have, through the millions of years, produced the rocks and the mountains, the rivers and the glaciers.” – David M. Baird, Jasper National Park: Behind the Mountains and Glaciers.

Writing about Jasper National Park, geologist David Baird challenged the imagination by speculating that a single drop of rain or a solitary crystal of snow falling on one special place in the Columbia Icefield may split into droplets that end up in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans after flowing for thousands of kilo-metres in completely different river systems. How is this possible?

The ice-covered summit of the Snow Dome in the Columbia Icefield is the hydrographic apex of North America. The three continental div-ides of North America that separate Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic drainage systems intersect here. This means that water from this point flows to three oceans, through the Saskatch-ewan and Nelson river systems to the Atlantic, through the Columbia sys-tem to the Pacific, and through the Athabasca and Mackenzie systems to the Arctic.

VegetationThe vegetation of a landscape is an expression of the climate, soil, natu-ral processes (like fire or landslides), and human interventions (like fire suppression). The map covering most of the Ecotour area shows that there are five main zones of


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vegetation. You will have stops in all of them, so you’ll be able to appreci-ate the differences on the ground.

East of the front ranges of the Rockies are the boreal forests of the subalpine and the Lower and Upper Foothills. The steeply sloped subalpine region is typically clothed with forests of lodgepole pine, white spruce and Engelmann spruce, and subalpine fir in older stands. The Upper Foothills Subregion has rolling terrain containing stands of lodgepole pine, white spruce, black spruce, and balsam fir, often inter-mixed with aspen and balsam poplar in the younger forests.

Three ecological zones in the front and main ranges are documented by Parks Canada literature: montane, subalpine, and alpine. The montane zone is located in the valley bottoms. There are lodgepole pine, Doug-las fir, and aspen stands and some grasslands at these lower elevations. This is the driest and warmest of

the three zones. In Jasper National Park, it represents only seven per cent of the landscape, very important as wildlife habitat and, also most sought after and used by the human species. Local climate variations produce a diverse array of plant communities that changes rapidly over short distances. The grassy open slopes and mixed-wood forests of the montane make for ideal grazing. For wildflower enthusiasts, the montane zone is home to brown-eyed susans, crocus, forget-me-nots, paintbrush, wild rose, wild strawberry, and yellow lady’s-slipper.

The subalpine zone covers about half of Jasper National Park. Open Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir forests intermix with scattered whitebark pine and herb-rich meadows at higher elevations, and white spruce and fire-succession lodgepole pine stands at lower elevations. Multicoloured columbine and the orange western wood

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HintonBrule

Jasper

Icefields Parkway

Robb

Cadomin

Natural Subregions

Lower Foothils

Upper Foothils

Montane

Subalpine

Alpine

NATuRAl SuB-REGIoNS oF ThE FooThIllS RESEARCh INSTITuTE CoRE STuDY AREA


lily cling to the mountain slopes.The alpine zone occupies the high-

est lands in Alberta and includes all areas above the treeline in the front and main ranges. A cold harsh cli-mate, along with steep and unstable rocky substrates, active glaciers, and permanent snowfi elds, limits plant growth and soil development to sheltered areas. The alpine zone has its spring display of fl owering alpine meadows, and lichens are abundant, some of them hundreds of years old.

Slight changes in climate may cause an abrupt change in an ecosystem such as insect outbreaks, wildfi re, and forest dieback. Some of these responses may be benign and benefi cial – in any case we need to reduce our impact on climate and learn to adapt to changes.

People and CulturesThe repopulation of this area after the continental glaciers melted is not yet well understood. Some of the earliest signs of people are found near Brûlé Lake and Cold Sulphur Spring, both of which we will visit on the tour. From the type of stone tools found at these sites, both sites

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have been dated to 9,000 years BP (before present).

Over the past two or three centuries, Shuswap people have lived in the Jasper and Mt. Robson areas. Beaver and Sarcee, both members of the Dene Nation, and scattered Sekani (all with languages of Athapaskan origin) are among the endemic First Nations groups. Beaver people inhabited a vast territory between the present-day Alberta–Saskatchewan border and the Peace River. They lived in relatively small family groups for most of the year.

The Stoney Nation (originally part of the Sioux), also known as the Assiniboine, was allied with the Cree. During the early nineteenth century, the Stoney and Cree people moved westward with the fur trade, along the Saskatchewan River system where they claimed territory for themselves between the Peigan (Blackfoot) and Gros Ventre (related to the southern Arapaho and Cheyenne) to the south and the Beaver nation to the north. The Cree are the largest Aboriginal

Retreat of the Athabasca Glacier below Roche Miette. howard coneybeareThe alpine zone occupies the high-

have been dated to 9,000 years BP(before present).

Retreat of the Athabasca Glacier below Roche Miette. howard coneybeare


group in northern Alberta and, although there are variants of Cree language, their language is associated with the larger Algonquian group of languages. The Ojibwa, also known in the west as the Saulteaux, and of the Algonquian language nations, migrated here from the Great Lakes region drawn in part by the expan-sion of the fur trade.

Trappers from the east in the ser-vice of the fur trade became a small but highly influential Aboriginal presence. The men were recruited largely from villages along the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, and, although most were Iroquois,

they also included a few Nipiss-ing and Abenaki, both Algonquian. Some trappers stayed on in the area as “freemen” after their contracts expired, and many married local Aboriginal women and adopted the Cree language. Their role in the cultural history of this area will be explored in many parts of the Ecotour.

Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, European fur traders and explorers came into the area from the east and north. Those who passed through, and those few who settled in the Ecotour area, will be introduced along the journey.

West from Icefields Highway 93 102

West from last Ecopoint 5.0

Latitude North 52058.152

East from Valemount 18.7

Distance West to next Ecopoint 5.6

Longitude West 119025.541

A word about DistancesIn this Ecotour we have tried to record distances as accurately as possible and, in most cases, have shown the distances in two directions – from the start of a reference “leg” of the tour to the end and back again. Because vehicle odometers do not always record distances the same, we use different scales. From 0-50 km we record to a tenth of a kilometre; from 50-100 km to the nearest half-kilometre, and over 100 km

to the nearest whole kilometre. Because people are encouraged to take side trips we also show distance between consecutive Ecopoints. For further insurance, we provide the GPS coordinates in latitude north and longitude west. Finally, the information is presented in a manner that allows the traveller to navigate in either direction through a particular Ecotour section. See the following example, taken from one point in Chapter 2:

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Now – on with the Ecotour!

In this case, if travelling west, you would see that this Ecopoint is 102 km west of the Highway 16/Icefields Parkway junction and it is 18.7 km to Valemount.

Your last Ecopoint was 5.0 km back (Column 1), your next is 5.6 km farther west (Column 2). If you are travelling east, the to/from distances are reversed.


Brûlé Lake and the Boule Range in Autumn. brian carnell


ChAPTER oNE

The EasternFoothills


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