Wells Gray Provincial Park
Wells Gray Provincial Park (BC Parks) · Clearwater, British Columbia
Wells Gray Provincial Park is a huge wilderness park in the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia, reached from the town of Clearwater on Highway 5, about two hours north of Kamloops. It is often called the park of waterfalls, and the name is earned: the Clearwater Valley Road runs through volcanic plateau country past Spahats Creek Falls, Dawson Falls and Helmcken Falls, where the Murtle River drops about 141 m into a deep bowl, one of the highest waterfalls in Canada. The road ends at Clearwater Lake, the gateway to canoe trips, and the backcountry holds old lava flows, cinder cones and alpine meadows, with moose and bears common. It suits drivers, waterfall chasers and paddlers; it is not a quick stop, since the main falls alone take a full day. Expect gravel on side roads, no fuel in the park, patchy phone signal and winter closures of much of the road. Some viewpoints have only partial fencing, so stay behind the barriers, and confirm road, wildfire and campground status with BC Parks before you drive up.
Wells Gray Information Centre, Clearwater Valley Road at Highway 5, Clearwater, British Columbia, V0E 1N1, Canada
The park itself is open year round, but the Clearwater Valley Road is only fully usable from about late spring to early autumn; in winter the road is not ploughed all the way, so the Helmcken Falls viewpoint and the lake can be unreachable by car. Campgrounds, the information centre in Clearwater and most outfitters run roughly May to September, with exact dates changing by year. Daylight is the real schedule: viewpoints have no lighting and the road is long. Wildfire smoke or closures can shut sections in dry summers, so confirm conditions with BC Parks, the Clearwater information centre and DriveBC before leaving town.
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