#3: [04-Aug-12]

#2: [19-Sep-05]

20-Jun-2001 -- June 20th was a beautiful day for a drive. I left Hinton and drove west into Jasper National Park with my windows down enjoying the warm weather and spectacular scenery. A large bull wapiti (elk) with it's antlers still in velvet grazed beside the highway at Talbot Lake oblivious to the traffic passing close by. Further on bighorn sheep ewe's rested on the shoulder of the road looking rather scruffy as they are shedding their old winter coat this time of year.

Continuing west past Jasper townsite on the Yellow Head Trans Canada Highway I soon crossed the continental divide which is also the border between the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. At the border/divide you also leave the national park and enter Mount Robson Provincial Park. Mount Robson is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies at 3954 metres.

The confluence of 53N 119W is only 1.6 km north of the highway at the west end of Moose Lake. As my GPS 12 counted down to less than two kilometres I found a place to pull of the highway and parked at 1:10 PM. I was able to walk along a maintenance road for a couple of hundred metres then crossed a power line and entered the forest. Initially it was easy going across flat ground through an open stand of mature pine. The terrain then began to climb towards the north and the forest cover changed to mostly aspen with a lot of underbrush. Navigating with the GPS and a compass I reached the confluence after a climb of 250 meters elevation from the highway.

The confluence is situated at an elevation of approximately 1300 metres elevation on a moderately steep treed side slope. Occasional openings in the trees allow limited views of the Fraser River below and the mountains across the valley.

As the face flies were out in full force in the calm air I quickly took the required pictures and began the return trip downhill to my car. The total time for the return hike was one hour and 45 minutes. After having my lunch I drove 16 km further west to the Robson Mountain visitors centre for a short stop. Retracing my route I arrived home after a total drive of 325 km.

In the Mount Robson Provincial Park.