Columbia Mountains Natural Region Columbia Mountains Natural Region Columbia Mountains presents a vertical world of narrow valleys and canyons squeezed between sheer mountain walls. This region triggering avalanches and spawning glaciers and icefields.
Hot springs are a feature of the major valleys.
Physically, the region is divided by Columbia Mountains, Columbia Highlands, Interior Plateau and Southern Rocky Mountain Trench. Concerning vegetation, we found here the greatest diversity of coniferous tree species in Canada, and where the productivity of its forest is surpassed only by the coastal rain forests. At low to middle elevation are luxuriant forests of western red cedar and western hemlock. Above the wet forest, dense stands of Engelmann spruce, alpine fir and lodgepole pine predominate up to the alpine tundra. Most of the mammals of western mountains are found here such as grizzly and black bear, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, moose, wolf, cougar, pika, mantled ground squirrel, hoary marmot and lemming.