Waterfalls in Wells Gray Provincial Park

Wow, already so many adventures in the Lac La Hache area.  We woke up on May 10, 2019, raring to get over to Wells Gray Provincial Park to view what little we could in the southwest corner of this spectacular wilderness park located in the Cariboo Mountains.  Helmcken Falls, the third highest waterfall in Canada and numerous other waterfalls and natural wonders make it an absolutely outstanding attraction for visitors from all over the world.  We weren't going to be able to get to Helmcken Falls, but we had three other awe-inspiring falls on our to-do list for this trip.

Our drive into Wells Gray took us along the shores of gorgeous Canim Lake:

We had almost 30 miles of gravel road to navigate with the Jeep before getting to our first trailhead -- the gateway to Mahood Falls and Canim Falls:

Only a partial kilometer in, we came to an awesome cliff of volcanic basalt, suggesting to us the drama we would encounter when we ultimately found the waterfalls:

Here was our view of Mahood Falls.  It was roaring-loud, but difficult to get closer to than this distant view from our side of the canyon:

The forest was almost rain-forest-like, and had its share of damp-climate life.  We had never before seen a fungus with bubbles of sap-like liquid on its surface:

Forget the fungi.  Here was our first look at Canim Falls, which spilled dramatically over a basalt shelf, down onto crumbled lava boulders:

There was so much to take in, including this view of small cascades on the opposite cliffwalls, across the roaring torrent of Canim River as it prepared to take its plunge:

And plunge it did, eastward toward Mahood Lake:

David couldn't resist getting up close to the Canim River where it spilled over the precipice.  Kathy just held her breath:

Here's a video showing the power of Canim Falls.

Downstream at Mahood Lake, we stopped to eat lunch and could not believe the utter serenity on this rocky lakeshore, where the roaring waters of Canim Falls and Mahood Falls flowed serenely into the lake:

Our lunch didn't last long. We needed to seek out the third waterfall, Deception Falls, which, on Deception Creek, feed into Mahood Lake from its northern shore.  As we drove up to the trailhead for Deception Falls, we crossed Deception Creek:

Ten kilometers on a rough dirt road and we found the trailhead:

Clearly, the park rangers had not yet started trail maintenance, so it was up to us poor hikers to overcome all obstacles:

The canopy of fir and aspen inspired vertigo:

After almost 2 kilometers, we found Deception Falls:

With the roaring falls in our ears and our brains, we made our way back down the trail.  We stopped to take this wide-angle photo of an incredibly large aspen tree, maybe 80 feet tall or more, that had fallen across the trail:

The fallen aspen displayed the whitest outer paper bark, layered over beautiful burnt umber or golden orange inner bark:

We made our way back to the trailhead and started the long Jeep drive home, when we turned a corner and suddenly encountered this deer, who looked just as surprised to encounter us as we were to encounter her:

We spent the rest of our drive back to our Lac La Hache campsite marveling at the sights we'd seen today.  On our minds, too, was our kayak fishing expedition, set for the next day.

Stay tuned!