Purcell Mountains
Beginning in northwest Montana, the Purcell Mountains rise and march northward into British Columbia, where they become a spectacular, forest and glacier-clad uplift, a part of what are generically called the Columbia Mountains. The Purcells parallel both the Canadian Rockies to their east and their sister range, the Selkirks, on the west.
Karnack Mountain in
the Purcells. British Columbia.
Copyright © Ralph Maughan
The Purcells are separated from the Rockies by the Rocky Mountain Trench, an amazing valley that is about 600 miles long, but only one to five miles wide.
British Columbia has protected one large roadless portion in the middle of the Purcells as the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Park. A few other smallish provincial parks protect portions of the range, such as the Bugaboos; but by and large its use is logging. In the winter there is of heli-sking and in the summer lots of people take the easy way up in helicopters, in my view another sad case of industrial tourism. To top that off, the B.C. government wants to put a gargantuan ski area and accompanying city in the heart of the range in Jumbo Creek near Glacier Dome. For more information, Jumbo Creek Conservation Society.
The famous
Bugaboos. Purcell Mountains.
British Columbia. Copyright © Ralph Maughan
A small portion of the Purcells are in Glacier National Park, B.C. (don't confuse this with Glacier National Park in the United States). The B.C. Glacier National Park covers a small, but especially spectacular portion of the Selkirk Mountains.
Part of the Purcells have a remnant population of mountain caribou, many black bear, and a fairly strong population of grizzlies, although the Purcell grizzly is in deep trouble near the U.S. Border.
Check out the Purcell Grizzly Bear Project.
 Forest and brushy avalanche chutes in the Welch Peaks area of the Purcell Mtns. Copyright © Ralph Maughan |
 Mt. McBeth. Purcell Range. Copyright © Ralph Maughan |
Lake of the Hanging Glacier. Purcell Range. Copyright © Ralph Maughan
Mountain High:
Purcells offer some of British Columbia's
best hiking and most spectacular scenery.
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Purcell Mountains revised on 3-16-2005 Return to my Idaho Wildlands Page rmaughan2@cableone.net