WELLS GRAY PROVINCIAL PARK

May 14th, 2014

Wells Gray Resort – Golf & RV Park

Note: Wells Gray Provincial Park doesn’t open until May 15^th. Drat. Who knew? So we’re cooling our heels here at Wells Gray Resort – Golf & RV Park which is about 35 km north on Clearwater Road on the way to the actual park entrance. To compound matters, they’re still clearing the roads from all the windfalls, snow etc. PLUS they’re repairing a bridge into the park which restricts traffic between 8 am and 5 pm. Hopefully they’ll have it completed by the weekend as it’s the May long weekend and they’re expecting hordes of visitors!!

On the way from Clearwater to the resort we stopped at Spahats Creek Falls, kind of a mini-Helmken Falls, smaller, but still quite spectacular. The creek pours out of a narrow cleft in the cliffs down into a horseshoe shaped canyon.

Spahats Creek Falls

The Wells Gray Resort Golf & RV Park is very nice though. We’re backed right on the river, the leaves are coming out in full bloom and there are lots of bears roaming through the campground and across the golf course!

Wells Gray Resort Golf & RV Park

Black Bears at Wells Grays Golf & RV Park

Appie time at Wells Grays Golf & RV Park

We’re going to head into the park tomorrow morning (the 15^th), before they close the road for further repairs, and hopefully get into one of the campgrounds early. We’ll probably stay put for the weekend, then head out. Apparently we’re only the 2^nd Canadian through here this year … all of the other visitors are either German or Swiss … leading us to call the other campers “Yerps” … (no disrespect intended … just shortening the word “Europeans” to Yerps … easier to say!!

May 15, 2014

We took a couple of nice hikes today … to a couple of spectacular waterfalls… Dawson Falls (which looks like a shorter version of Niagara Falls) and a trail out to the south side of Helmcken Falls, which is VERY VERY tall! The hike into Helmcken was about 8 km and wound through the forest till it got close to the falls. The last bit was in about 6’ of snow … interesting. Wonder if it’s the mist/water coming off the falls that causes that … because the rest of the hike … and the rest of the forest we’ve seen so far … has no snow. The hike out there is rather long, but you can get very close to the falls here compared to the lookout on the more popular north side.

Bridge across the Murtle River in Wells Gray, which was under repair

Dawson Falls on the Murtle River

Dawson Falls

Lot of snow still around on the hike to Helmcken falls!

That’s a long way down!

Helmcken Falls from the South side

We arrived in Wells Gray Provincial Park on the official opening day – May 15^th – and we’re some of the only people in this vast park! Awesome!!

Clearwater Campground in Wells Gray Provincial Park

There are several campgrounds, none of them with any hook-ups so be prepared. There are pit toilets at all the campgrounds and the Clearwater Campground has a small store and a small café near the campground. They say there’s fishing in the river, but right now it’s extremely high from the snow run-off … heck … there’s still snow in the campground!

You can also rent canoes or put in your own and head out for a paddle around Clearwater Lake or head out for a wilderness camping adventure.

May 16th

It’s truly amazing here! There are more rivers, lakes, waterfalls, hiking trails and beautiful scenery than you can believe. To begin the day, we first stopped at the look out on the north side of Helmcken Falls. This is the most popular view point for these famous falls and the lookout is just a short distance from the parking lot.

Helmcken Falls

We hiked a few of the ‘shorter’ trails (2 – 4 hours is ‘short’) up wooded hillsides, over fallen trees, through streams that have over run the trails … and found some amazing sights. Waterfalls to equal anything you might see anywhere in the world! And there’s so many of them! It’s truly awesome! Be warned though, this early in the season, a lot of the trail maintenance hasn’t been completed so there are lots of fallen trees and branches across the trails, some places flooded and in many places snow.

Hiking across the snow to Sitka Falls

Sitca Falls

Overlook on the Sitka Falls Trail

We haven’t seen much in the way of wildlife, although there are bears, deer, caribou, wolverine, osprey and on and on. We have seen lots of scat from bears but nothing closer in the park, although at the Wells Gray Resort, we saw them quite a bit!

We also hiked the Ray’s Farm & Mineral Springs loop. This turned out to be more of a challenge with lots of dead fall and one majorly flooded section of the trail where we had to walk across the fallen trees to get around the water!

Lots of dead fall!

One of many obstacles on Ray’s Farm & Mineral Springs Loop!

The mineral springs are interesting, like a mini-volcano except it’s bubbling mineral water – it looks like it’s boiling, but its not. Apparently, minerals become dissolved in the water moving through the underground rocks giving the water flavour, but it also picks up carbon dioxide which gives it is bubbly nature! Make sure to take a water bottle along, its safe to drink and tastes great too!

The natural mineral springs

Hiking to Rays Farm just past the mineral springs

Ray’s Farm – there are mineral springs bubbling up through the pasture here as well

There are some trails close to the Clearwater Campground where we are staying which we checked out as well, and then stopped for a coffee at the cafe.