Walter J. Phillips began teaching summer classes at the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1940, and from 1941 until he retired in 1957, he and his family would live in Alberta. Mountain Road is also sometimes titled West Road in other editions that Phillips produced of this image, and depicts a paved road leading along the Vermillion Lakes on the way to Johnston’s Canyon. Phillips Historian Roger Boulet noted that of all Phillips’ sketching locations, this West Road was among his favourite. In an unpublished manuscript that Phillips left behind, we find insight into his fondness for the area: “To us the West road is the highroad to adventure. It has its dull moments, but it leads to the heart of the Rockies and promises much.”