If I have to shovel one more foot of snow this winter I’m going to scream!

I’m often asked what it’s like to live at Mt. Robson. Undeniably beautiful, yes, but that darn mountain towering majestically some 3954 meters has a way of creating a microclimate that delivers buckets of rain in spring and mountains of snow in winter. And, after all that shovelling to clear a path for a trip to Valemount, by the time I get to Tete Jaune, often there’s barely a skiff of the white stuff and the temperature is a good ten degrees warmer!

The Robson Valley contains pockets of the only inland rainforest in the northern hemisphere—called an Oroboreal rainforest meaning ‘mountain caused’ (as opposed a “temperate” or “tropical” rainforest). The sheer volume of precipitation in this area results from some of these pockets being located in Mt. Robson Park accounting not only for all that snowfall but for majestic cedars on Hargreaves Rd. as well as along the Berg Lake Trail. This unique rainforest offers anomalies that occur only in the Robson Valley e.g. the only grizzlies feeding on wild ocean salmon in the Rocky Mountains, hybridization of some species e.g., Eastern Blue Jay/Steller’s Jay and, Engelmann/White Spruce, 1200 year old Western Red cedars, among other peculiarities.

Mt. Robson Park was expanded in late 2000 to include the entire Swift Current Creek corridor. By doing so, it totally enveloped the small community of residences adjacent to the creek. The private land parcels are situated on both the south (Swift Current Rd.) and the north (Swift Current Creek Rd.) of the Yellowhead and, on the east side of the creek (Howard Rd). This community began in 1978 when the landowners subdivided these properties into some 18, five+ acre parcels—although all of the properties have been sold, not all have been developed. Historically, there were trapper cabins on both the west and east side of Swift Current Creek some as early as 1920s; some remnants of the cabins and a mill that operated from 1950 to 60 still exist. The Mt. Robson community also consists of a few other residences outside what is considered this Swift Current subdivision. Some dating back to the 1920s are still in great form e.g., Mt. Robson Ranch, Skylark Lodge and the development at the Mt. Robson lookout as well Mt. Robson Lodge on the west end of the Park. More recently, larger parcels of land off Hargreaves Rd., once belonging to the Mt. Robson Ranch were subdivided—all have been sold and some have already been developed.

Most residents in the community are from Alberta - very few live year-round although this seems to be changing as more retire to the area. Some of the first residents who tried to live year round found ‘life in the middle of nowhere” - something I’m asked about repeatedly - to be too isolating, lonely and too far from services, and sold. Now, most land parcels include comfortable cabins and a few larger homes including a B&B. In the last few years, residents have been developing quite a sense of community with neighbours often walking from residence to residence sharing the latest animal sightings and giving encouragement and assistance to those still in the process of building.