Burnie-Shea Park is a 34,536 hectare BC Parks wilderness park established in 2008 through the Morice Land and Resource Management Plan. BC Parks describes a broad subalpine valley, extensive wetlands, rugged mountains, and the glaciated Howson Range.
Upper and Lower Burnie lakes lie in a deep U-shaped valley at 914 metres elevation.
Burnie-Shea is for self-reliant backcountry travellers who want remote hiking, skiing, mountaineering, and wildlife viewing. Access is generally by helicopter or floatplane, with no road or trail access to the main park. Hiking in summer and skiing in winter are long approaches.
The landscape includes Shea Lake in a wetland complex near the Telkwa Mountains, a maze of wetlands and sinkhole lakes on the Tom George Plateau, and dramatic Howson Range summits rising to 2,759 metres. A commercial lodge operates near the north end of the park by the Burnie Glacier.
BC Parks lists hiking without maintained trails, fishing, wildlife viewing, mountaineering, hunting in season, and excellent backcountry skiing. The park also protects whitebark pine communities near the northern extent of their range, grizzly habitat, Telkwa caribou habitat, mountain goat terrain, and diverse fish in Burnie Lakes.
Plan around remote route-finding, alpine hiking, Burnie Lakes, Shea Lake, Howson Range mountaineering, fishing, backcountry skiing, lodge-based access, wildlife observation, and hunting during open season.
Expect difficult access and minimal facilities. Prepare for avalanches, crevasses, rock and icefall, rapidly changing stream levels, snow even in August, wildlife encounters, avalanche terrain, and snowmobile closures in the northern portion.
