Wells Gray Provincial Park is one of British Columbia's - and Canada's - great wonders and it is rather surprising that more people do not take advantage of it. It is also surprising that many of our province's citizens have never taken the time to witness for themselves the outstanding beauty of something within our midst.
Its beauty is absolutely astounding and with thirty-nine waterfalls - as well as many lesser ones - it is often called "Canada's Waterfalls Park". The most well-known and most notable of these is Helmcken Falls which vertically drops 141 m and is almost three times the height of Niagara Falls. Its thunderous roar can be heard hundreds of metres away, well before one ever sees it.
The falls namesake, John Helmcken, a Victoria doctor who contributed greatly toward our province's entry into Confederation in 1871 never, in fact, ever saw the majestic falls and died seven years after the first white person, Robert Lee, laid eyes upon it. The park's extreme ruggedness dissuaded three, early Canadian National Railway surveying parties that a route across it was unsuitable and impractical for any railway line. But, these first explorations led to the spread by word-of-mouth of its wondrous beauty and its eventual creation as British Columbia's fourth-largest provincial park.
Shaped over millions of years from violent volcanic eruptions, recurring lava flows and, more recently, glacial scrapings and scarring, the park has now become the glorious creation of time and nature as we see it today. Passing through Lone Butte by car, one cannot help but see the volcanic plug pointing skyward from the volcanic plateau - the end product of an extinct volcano some 6.5 million years old.
While enjoying the majesty of Helmcken or Spahats Falls, one cannot fail to see the layers of thick lava beds left from repeated lava flows so many eons ago. At the base of Spahats Falls in Granite Canyon, the rock is estimated to be approximately 1.2 billion years old - that is, one quarter the age of Earth itself.
And, from atop Green Mountain Lookout Tower one obtains a fabulous and unforgettable panorama of the southern portion of Wells Gray Park and the unmistakeable Pyramid Mountain formed by a small volcano underneath an ancient, glacial ice sheet.
This rugged terrain - today alternately covered by heavy snowfalls and then imperceptibly carved by rivulets, creeks, rivers, and waterfalls into a myriad of lakes - has created one of BC's finest Cottage Country areas, in one of Canada's great wildernesses, for the enjoyment of citizens and tourists alike. With lakes such as Mahood, Murtle, Green, Clearwater and Canim, and a host of others, many flock here for the cool, clean, clear summer air away from the congestion and smog of the cities.
Wells Gray Park is also enriched by thick, rich forests which gently transition into alpine meadows as they extend to mountainous peaks. Biologists have identified over 700 different vascular plants, 200 different types of mushrooms, 55 different mammals and 220 different species of birds which add to the delicate sounds of the whispering forests.
Such a wide range of beauty of terrain, flora and fauna is difficult to find anywhere in North America, yet here it is on our doorstep. (539)
