We headed north up the main road into the Wells Gray Provincial Park to do a few short walks which would let us see some of the main waterfalls in the area.
The first stop was Spahats Falls (Spahat is the First Nations' word for 'bear'). This was a typical plunge waterfall, and drops into the stunning Clearwater Valley - a broad expanse of tree-covered mountain valleys that had been carved out by the water flows.
From here we took a short walk through the forest trail to a better viewpoint of the valley. Along the way we spotted a few bits of wildlife including three odd grouse-like birds that startled us when they ran out into the path in front of us. They were strangely unfussed by our presence and after sharing the path with us for a while, we stepped past them and continued.
After taking in some more of the scenery, we started off back and found ourselves confronted by a very angry squirrel who most certainly was fussed by our presence. It was attached to a tree making shrill noises at us until it came to realise he wasn't particularly intimidating and made off in the forest! A short while later we also spotted a Woodpecker (a 'Hairy Woodpecker' apparently) which was busily boring at a tree trunk.
Next we continued to Helmcken falls. Another plunging waterfall, but larger than Spahats and actually the fourth biggest in Canada.
Finally we had a short drive to Dawson Falls, this one a 'block' waterfall (wide and short) which we were able to get quite close to, but the incredibly powerful current meant we kept our distance.
The evening was drawing in at this point and with an early start tomorrow we took the one hour drive back out of the park, back to our hotel.
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