The next day we headed back into the park in the morning with the intention of doing two trails: the West Lake Loop and Moul Falls.

About twenty minutes into the park we saw a black bear enjoying berries by the side of the road. When I opened my car window the bear got on his hind legs but then quickly lost interest again and kept eating.

Little did we know that this would not be our only encounter with a bear for the day as we continued to Bailey’s Chute.

It is only a short walk to a platform built overlooking an extreme whitewater rapid caused by a lava flow narrowing the river bed. From there, you can loop the trail if you want. Bailey’s Chute’s cascade shows the sheer power of the Clearwater River. The waterfall is named after James Bailey, an engineer who was tasked with bridging this violent river. He died in a boating accident further down on Murtle River.

Most people turn around after visiting the Bailey’s Chute viewing platform. But we wanted to do the whole West Lake Loop.

Marcus is the second of the three waterfalls that you see on this trail. It stands out because of its width.

At 3.4 km there is yet another waterfall, Myanth, almost as wide as the Marcus falls.

The whole West Lake Loop took us two hours to complete but it is fairly easy to do. We did not see any other hikers on the whole trail until our return to Bailey´s Chute.

Before lunch we made one more stop at Horseshoe Canyon. There is not much of a viewpoint on this trail but you get a glimpse of the loop the Clearwater River makes here. As we were just about to turn around to go back to the car we heard a loud noise beneath us. So we did our best to make a noisy exit in order to scare away any bear that might have been there. Be a noisy hiker they said on all the warning signs.

Last hike for our stay in Wells Gray National Park was to Moul Waterfall where you can walk all the way down to the foot of the fall on a steep decline. Some people even climb behind the waterfall on a very narrow and slippery path.

We did not. But instead got our adrenaline rush on the walk back. About half way and still 30 minutes from our car we saw a black bear rummaging through the woods right next to us. Hubby managed to call out to a couple that was just coming towards us but were unable to see the bear from their viewpoint to stop. Meanwhile the bear crossed our path about ten meters in front of us. He trotted in a slow pace, looked at us once and then slowly disappeared into the undergrowth. I can tell you, there is a big difference between seeing a bear from the safety of your car to encountering one in the wild!