Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park is one of the oldest provincial parks in British Columbia, established in 1922. The park has an area of 320.35 km2 (123.69 sq mi) and is located in the Selkirk Mountains in the West Kootenays region of BC. The park has three glaciers (Kokanee, Caribou, and Woodbury) that feed over 30 alpine lakes which are the headwaters of many creeks.
There are five access roads entering the park, which were developed as mining and forestry roads along the major drainages. The nearest towns are Nelson, Ainsworth, Kaslo and Slocan City (access is primarily from Nelson and Kaslo). Pierre Trudeau's youngest son Michel, was killed in an avalanche in 1998 while skiing at this park (see Kokanee Lake).
Grays Peak is a prominent mountain in the park. Named after Robert Hampton Gray (VC) and his brother, John Balfour Gray, the peak is notable as the mountain featured on the label of Kokanee beer.
Famous quotes containing the words glacier, provincial and/or park:
““The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan,—mere Jonathans. We are provincial, because we do not find at home our standards; because we do not worship truth, but the reflection of truth; because we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive devotion to trade and commerce and manufacturers and agriculture and the like, which are but means, and not the end.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The park is filled with night and fog,
The veils are drawn about the world,”
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)