The weather changes rapidly here in the mountains. Over night the clouds have lifted and we started in the day with warm and sunny weather.
A must see in Wells Gray National Park is Helmcken Falls. Instead of driving to the viewing area we wanted to do the South Rim Hike on the other side of the canyon. This path takes you along Murtle River as it builds up force leading up to the waterfall until you see the drop. When you continue a bit further downstream you have a spectacular view of Helmken Falls through the trees.
Unfortunately the signage in the park is somewhat lacking and we missed the turn off to the trail. Since the next turnoff was the viewing platform we decided to go there first. Well, we shouldn’t have. It kind of spoiled the surprise of seeing this magnificent waterfall for the first time after a long hike.
With 141 meters Helmcken Falls is the fourth highest waterfall in Canada, measured by total straight drop without a break. It is one of six waterfalls on the Murtle River.
The protection of Helmcken Falls was one of the reasons for the creation of Wells Gray Provincial Park in 1939. We were under the impression that British Columbia Parks is working towards making the natural wonders of this beautiful area more accessible to the public by creating easy access to some of the waterfalls.
Some you need to work a little harder for. And one of these is the South Rim which took us about three hours to complete. So after this much walking we decided it was time for coffee and cake. We drove up to Clearwater lake to the “Osprey Cafe” by the river side where we enjoyed Cranberry Crumble with ice cream.
Once we were sufficiently rested we walked through the campsite along Osprey Falls to Stikta Falls. From there you can continue to Dragon Tongue to see the lava beds that make up most of Wells Gray Park.
However, we turned around as the mosquitoes were eating us alive. Even though I had dug up the fly net for covering my head that I had bought for Western Australia- but never used- from the depths of my backpack the swarm of mosquitoes that followed us made the walk unbearable. The recent rain was taking its toll. But on the upside the rain has given rise to the most beautiful wildflowers.
Dawson Falls is located just ten minutes from the parking lot. Its shallow veil spans 90 meters across. Seeing this waterfall made us doubt the fact that the lady in the Visitor Centre had mentioned that Silvertip Falls was the biggest. Or did she mean per height x width? Well, actually it doesn’t matter. One is more beautiful than the next and they are all stunning.
But then everything in this impressive park is. Twentytwo volcanoes and fortyone named waterfalls (and counting), I mean, if that’s not incredible what is?
