Park overview
Height of the Rockies Park has internationally significant biodiversity, and sustains quality habitat for a wide variety of animals and plants, including grizzly bears, and mountain goats. It plays an important role in connecting a protected area network lying north and south along the Great Divide.
From the lower elevations, like Palliser River valley at 1,300 metres, to Mount Joffre at 3,449 metres, the area protects both lush forests and permanent icefields. Seven major mountain passes and several distinct drainages provide the geographical and visual diversity that characterize the magnificent southern Rocky Mountains.
Advisories
Safety info
Trail Report [PDF] (November 3, 2023)
- The park is a wilderness area without supplies or equipment of any kind. All arrangements for supplies and transportation must be made in advance.
- Weather conditions can change suddenly, and lightning storms with hail and snow are common in summer.
- Wear strong, water-proofed, lug-soled boots. Carry a day-pack with rain gear, extra clothing, and food. For overnight trips, a sleeping bag, ground pad, water-proof tent or bivouac bag, and light-weight stove are essential.
- Bring your own drinking water, as potable water is not available in the park. To ensure that water from streams is safe to drink, it must be boiled for at least five minutes or treated or filtered.
- Only experienced climbers, practiced in crevasse rescue and properly roped, should venture onto snowfields.
- Loaded logging trucks and other industrial traffic may be encountered while accessing this park from British Columbia. Drive with extreme caution, and for your safety, always yield to industrial traffic.
- Public communications are not available at this park.
Learn more about backcountry safety in our backcountry guide.
Special notes
- The park is closed to logging, mining and other resource uses. Existing grazing, guide-outfitting and trapping activities are permitted to continue at established levels.
- Motorized and mechanized recreational access is prohibited, including helicopters, snowmobiles, ATVs and mountain bikes.
- Float plane access is allowed only as authorized by a valid and subsisting park use permit.
Camping
There is a user-maintained backcountry campsite located at Beatty Lake. This site provides five tent pads, a food storage cache, and a cooking area with benches and a table, and a pit toilet.
Fires are not permitted at this location. Please camp only on the provided tent pads.
Wilderness camping is only permitted outside a 2 km radius of this site.
There are two cabins in the park for public use.
- At the north end of Connor Lake is a small cabin for public use on a first come, first served basis. The cabin will accommodate six people, has a wood stove and there is a pit toilet nearby.
- At Queen Mary Lake, an eight person log cabin is available on a first come, first served basis. A wood stove is provided in the cabin. A pit toilet is nearby.
Firewood is not provided. Use only dead and downed trees for firewood. Cutting of live trees is not permitted.
Please leave the cabins neat and tidy and pack out all garbage, including leftover food.
There is a user-maintained backcountry campsite located at Beatty Lake. Wilderness camping is only permitted outside a 2 km radius of this site. There are other wilderness campsites, but no facilities are provided.
- When toilets are not available bury human waste at least six inches in soil and 30 metres from water.
- To ensure drinking water is safe it must be boiled for at least five minutes.
- Register a trip itinerary with friends, check in and check out.
- When practical use impacted campsites, otherwise practice “Leave No Trace” camping ethics.
- If you have a fire build it on rocks, or remove sod, have fire, then replace sod.
- Height of the Rockies is open all year and is a non-mechanized park.
Winter camping is permitted in the park.
Facilities
Fires are allowed but be prepared by bringing a portable stove for cooking. Only have open fires when necessary, keeping them small to conserve firewood.
Fires are prohibited in the Limestone Lakes area, to mitigate impacts concerning conservational values.
Campfire bans may be in place. Before lighting a fire, check for bans or restrictions on BC Wildfire Service and on local or Indigenous government websites.
The park only has pit toilets, no flush toilets. There is a pit toilet at Connor Lakes cabin and Queen Mary cabin. Bury human waste in soil at least 15 cm deep and 30 m from water if no toilet is provided.
Activities
This park has trails for hiking or walking. For your own safety and the preservation of the park, obey posted signs and keep to designated trails. Shortcutting trails destroys plant life and soil structure.
- Most trails are user maintained. Expect difficult, muddy or bushy conditions.
- There is no signage in the park, navigational skills are essential, including experience with topographical maps and compass.
- This park also has several informal or unmarked trails that are not maintained and at best, include intermittent stretches where a beaten path is visible.
- Travel through dense undergrowth and occasionally through tangled slide areas is required. These routes offer excellent scenic opportunities but they are not recommended for small children or inexperienced hikers. Hikers travel these routes at their own risk.
- Route-finding skills and an aptitude for orienteering are essential, and hikers need to obtain the appropriate topographical maps prior to arrival.
- Off-trail travel increases your chances of encountering a bear, so travel cautiously.
- The route leading to The Pass in the Clouds, Goat Lake and Deep Lake from the White Middle Fork, was severely burnt in 2003 and is indiscernible for most of its length.
- Trail Report [PDF] (May 29, 2023)
There are cold water swimming opportunities at this park.
There are no lifeguards on duty in BC Parks.
There is excellent cutthroat fishing in this park.
Anyone fishing in British Columbia must have an appropriate licence. To learn more, see the fishing and hunting guide.
Pets and domestic animals must be on a leash at all times and are not allowed in beach areas or park buildings. You are responsible for their behaviour and must dispose of their excrement. Dogs in the backcountry must be under control at all times. Backcountry areas are not suitable for dogs or other pets due to the potential for problems with bears and other wildlife.
Horseback riding is permitted. There are some trailhead corrals. As grazing is limited, feed should be packed into Sylvan Pass, Queen Mary Lake and Middle Fork White River meadows. Use pellets as they do not contain weed seeds.
Routes are also not maintained and at best, include intermittent stretches where a beaten path is available. Moderate scrambling and travel through fairly dense undergrowth and occasionally through tangled slide areas is required. These routes offer excellent scenic opportunities, however, they are not recommended for innexperienced riders. Route-finding skills and an aptitude for orienteering are essential, and visitors need to obtain the appropriate topographical maps prior to arrival. Off-trail travel increases your chances of encountering a bear, so travel cautiously.
There are many climbing and mountaineering opportunities in the park.
Attention Hunters: To avoid human-bear conflicts and out of respect for non hunters, please hang all game meat at least 75 metres away from all camps and cabins and hang game three to five metres above the ground.
Do not butcher your game animal or dispose of the carcass or entrails on or near any road or trail. This may endanger other hunters or recreationists.
The park is open to hunting. All hunters to the area should refer to the current BC Hunting and Trapping Regulations Synopsis.
There are cross-country, ski-touring and snowshoeing opportunities within Height of the Rockies Park as well as Connor Lakes and Abbot Ridge.
Height of the Rockies park is adjacent to Banff National Park, Elk Lakes Park, and Peter Lougheed Park in Alberta. There are six major trailheads accessible by summer logging roads:
- from Canal Flats on Hwy 93/95 via the Whiteswan and White River roads ( turn east 4.5 km south of Canal Flats)
- from Sparwood on Hwy 3 turn north to Elkford, then follow the Elk River road
- from Highway 93 from Kootenay National Park, access Settlers Road through to the Palliser and Albert River roads
The park is also accessible by trail routes from Banff National Park, Elk Lakes Park and Peter Lougheed Park.
The community of Elkford is the closest community when accessing Height of the Rockies from the southern portion of the park. Canal Flats and Radium Hot Springs are the closest communities when accessing the park from the west.
Learn more about this park
Park details
- Date established: July 12, 1995
- Size: 54,170 hectares
Nature and culture
History
The area was established as a Forest Service Wilderness Area in 1987 at the culmination of 12 years of dedicated work by naturalists, guide outfitters, the forest industry and government. It became a provincial park in 1995.
Cultural Heritage
The park includes routes used by Indigenous people to the plains over North Kananaskis and Palliser passes. Preliminary archaeological surveys have located two archaeological sites at the Middle Fork of the White River. There was also early European exploration over North Kananaskis Pass and down the Palliser River by Warre and Vavasour (1845), the Sinclair Settlers (1854), and the Palliser Expedition (1858-59).
Conservation
Height of the Rockies Park contributes to the ecological integrity and viability of the large block of national and provincial parks extending along the spine of the Rocky Mountains There are numerous small lakes and outstanding natural features, including the Palliser River, the Middle Fork of the White River, the Limestone Lakes plateau, Conner Lakes, and the Royal Group of mountains.
Wildlife
The Height of Rockies contains high concentrations of elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose, cougar, black and grizzly bears and exceptional numbers of mountain goats. The Connor Lakes are a significant source of eggs for the Kootenay Hatchery’s native cutthroat stocking program.
Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples
BC Parks honours Indigenous Peoples’ connection to the land and respects the importance of their diverse teachings, traditions, and practices within these territories. This park webpage may not adequately represent the full history of this park and the connection of Indigenous Peoples to this land. We are working in partnership with Indigenous Peoples to update our websites so that they better reflect the history and cultures of these special places.