The drive from Valemount was quite uneventful. Traffic was very light and we only stopped once to walk down to Little Hell‘s Gate.

Destination for the following three days was Wells Gray Provincial Park in the East Cariboo District. With the boardering provincial parks the Wells Gray NP makes up for an area of 810.000 hectares of protected land. Even though the mountains are smaller than the ones in the Rockies they still reach heights up to 2758 meters (Mt. Winder). You get access to the park via the Highway 5 in Clearwater, the Southern Yellowhead Highway.

The visitor center in Clearwater was our first stop for some information on the hikes and road conditions in the area.

After breakfast in the Visitor Centre’s picknick area where we had a nice chat with a Dutch couple who had immigrated to Canada in the 1950s we started our adventure in Wells Gray NP with a visit to Spahat Falls. The waterfall is easily accessible from the parking lot and thus full of families with children.

Just a short walk along the rim takes you to Shaden viewpoint from where you have a excellent view of the Clearwater Valley.

About a kilometer above Spahat Falls a corrugated dirt road that has been washed out by the recent rain takes you to Silvertip Falls. The visitor center does not point many tourists to this hike as the road is somewhat difficult to navigate if you are not used to unsealed roads (something our Australian travels have prepared us well for). Also the hike is quite challenging as you climb up through dense forrest over roots and rocks. As it had still rained in the morning the trail was quite slippery and muddy.

Also, if I‘d expected a bear to be roaming about it would be this area as it was way off the beaten path. But luckily we did not encounter any bears. Maybe because we were chatting loudly and singing loud and false? Be a noisy hiker they recommend here- so we were.

To reach the falls you have to navigate a steep and rough trail and hop over puddles after rain. As the lady in the visitor center pointed out: Silvertip Falls is the biggest fall in Wells Gray National Park, though the price for being the tallest would go to Helmken Falls that we planned on visiting the following day.