Wells Gray Provincial Park

17^thSeptember 2019

On a crisp mountain morning, 3 C, we headed out of Jasper at 8 am, past the usual herd of elk feeding by the roadside at the end of the main street, and turned left in the direction of our next destination, Clearwater, BC, the Gateway to Wells Gray Provincial Park, renowned for its waterfalls.

Carole spotted a black bear wandering along the roadside but there was nowhere to stop to capture a photo.

Looking for somewhere to have breakfast, our first opportunity was at a roadside stop at Mount Robson, lookout. Mount Robson is the highest peak in the Rockies at just under 4000m, sadly, most of it was covered by cloud. We went in to the café at the tourist centre, only to be confronted by a long queue from a bus tour and a pretty ordinary menu, so we motored on.

Mount Robson (most of it is in the clouds and not visible) and the Cafe below

Fortunately, a bit further along the road, we stopped at Valemont, at a restaurant/café no doubt revered by truckers. 

I had the truckers breakfast, which really hit the spot to get us onto our next stop, the Bear Safari at Mud Lake. Now this was a surprise bonus free offer from the agent we used to book this trip. Posters along the roadside show pictures of Grizzly Bears and promises of the experience of a lifetime, cruising mud lake in search of bears. 

We arrived at 10.15am, just in time to pick up the 10.30am tour, with amongst others, a group of young Aussies on an Intrepid Adventure Tour. Looks like we have really done well here. It gets better, the 60 minute tour we are booked for is really 2 hours, and includes a cruise looking for bears and a jet boat ride looking for more bears up the shallow river that feeds the lake.

Cruise HQ

However, there is a small problem. The weather is not good. We head out in our cleverly designed “catamaran” canoes, skippered by a young Aussie from Perth, and powered by a Torquedo electric outboard so as not to scare the bears. We were a bit suspicious when before boarding the boat, we were encouraged to take a poncho and lap blanket (as it might get cold!!@!)

Channel markers are ducks with red or green bands around their necks

The first half hour of scouring the lakeside in stealth using the electric motor went well, without much reciprocal effort from the bears ie there were no sightings. 

There are no bears but the scenery is quite spectacular

Poncho's were essential

The rain began to fall, after all it was explained to us that mud lake is in a rainforest zone and is fed by 7 glaciers. Our experience from this trip has taught us that where there are glaciers, there is rain. Nevertheless, it was only light rain, the scenery was very nice, there was no wild life and we headed to a transfer point where we got to see a very nice waterfall and transferred to the jet boats to do the glacial river bit. 

Our "catamaran canoe" berthed at the transfer point to see the waterfall and catch the jetboat

The waterfall was only a short walk from the wharf and worth the effort

Another young Aussie from Melbourne is our skipper and we tear up the glacial river, which is very shallow in parts, and full of debris, very skillfully in reasonable weather ( light rain). We reach the end of the navigable part of the river, get a great view of one of the glaciers, and then the rain came down with vengeance. 

Our jet boat powering up the narrow and shallow glacial river

View of the glacier at the end of our trip up river

The jet boat behind us approaching the turnaround point

Pointing out the glacier as the boat is held staionary in the fast flowing river

We powered our way back to the transfer point, not really being able to see anything as the rain was icy cold and heavy. Somehow our skipper could still see and got us back safely. There was a wood fired stove on the wharf that everyone immediately headed towards to warm up, and maybe dry out a little.

Not much point looking for bears in this weather, we headed back to base as quickly as possible, enjoyed complementary tea or coffee, and hit the road. Our 60 minute free adventure ended up taking 2.5 – 3 hours, no bears we sighted, and we needed to get on to our final destination for the night, Clearwater BC.

Clearwater is a small settlement, in what appears to be a place with a lot of tourism interest. We arrived at our accommodation, the biggest hotel in town, at 2.30 pm, only to be told our room wouldn’t be ready till 3 pm. We hadn’t had lunch, so we found a lovely Bakery/Café just down the road called Wild flour, ordered some roasted tomato and garlic soup, which was sensational, and probably the cheapest lunch we have had so far.

As we had limited time here, we moved on with our sightseeing plans (we can check in later). This park is famous for it’s waterfalls, and the best one , Helmcken Falls is reputed to be the most spectacular in the Canadian Rockies. Once we arrived there we could see why!

With limited time we also wanted to visit Bailey’s Chute, a very nasty piece of water which is the end of the road for salmon heading upstream to spawn. Apparently their last attempt to go upstream happens at Bailey’s Chute where it is clearly impossible to get past it. The one’s that get that far try, and get washed back downstream to a calmer area called the Horseshoe where they eventually spawn and die, Carole saw one lone salmon try unsuccessfully, unfortunately I missed it.

By now the rain was falling heavily and we just wanted to get back to Clearwater, as we 14 km of unsealed road that is now very wet to negotiate, before we get back on sealed road for another 40km.

Arriving back at Clearwater at 6pm, we can now get access to our room, and the restaurant is overflowing with 2 tour busloads of patrons. The proprietor suggests we try a restaurant within walking distance, The Hop & Hog ( a craft brewery and smokehouse). It was our first choice anyway, and we had called in on the way back to the hotel only to be told they do not accept bookings for groups of less than 6, but you can join a waitlist and waiting time is normally around 15-20 minutes.

We went down there at 7.30pm, and there were 14 other people on the waitlist. We added our name, and sure enough, within 10-15 minutes we were seated at a table. The craft beer was very good, and the BBQ 14 hr slow cooked beef brisket was sensational. Washed down with a nice merlot from the Okanagan Valley we were happy people. There was a bunch of old guys, and girls, having a good time from a motorcycle club called “Live to Ride” apparently established in Canada in 1913. They, and their partners, each wore their jackets identifying which state they were from and looked like they were settled in for a big one.

We left with full stomachs and looking forward to a good nights sleep, wishing we had a bit more time to explore this amazing place.