Wells Gray Provincial Park

Frank the Truck Camper Our Frank had a navigation system on board. Funny Fact: Unpaved roads were included as standard in Canada. If you only wanted to drive on paved roads, you had to switch off off-road specifically during the search. We hadn't done that, so Frank took us directly to the entrance of Wells Gray Provincial Park.

And direct way meant on this day, over roads and paths similar to forest roads until we met the Little Fort Highway (24) at Bridge Lake.

North Bonaparte Road

Highway 24 was paved, but here it went down quite a bit. And a runaway lane for trucks with overheated brakes impressed us mightily.

Runaway Lane

We had breakfast in Little Fort overlooking the North Thomson River.

Breakfast at North Thompson RIver Little Fort, BC

In Clearwater we refueled and tried again to get a cheap gas grill, so we did not always have to cook in the RV. Gas grills were still allowed even when open fires were banned. But we didn't want to spend over $150 for the remaining 2 weeks holiday.

We also visited the Visitor Center of Wells-Gray Park and stocked up on some information.

Wells Gray Park is the fourth largest provincial park in British Columbia, covers 5400km² and is divided into 6 sections. Only one sector is "easily" accessible: the so-called Wells Gray Corridor, which is accessible from Clearwater and follows the Clearwater River to Clearwater Lake. Nature conservation is very important in the park and many of the lakes in the park can only be used with non-motorized boats.

We also followed the Clearwater River. The path to Clearwater Lake is ~56km long from the park entrance. But we were in no hurry, because we wanted to leave the park not before the day after next and so we grazed some of the highlights here in the park on our way in peace.

Spahats Falls

Shaden Viewpoint

Clearwater River

Green Mountain Tower (no path without ground clearance!)

Green Mountain Tower

Dawson Falls

Helmcken Falls

At Bailey's Cute you could see salmon jumping, but unfortunately we were there too early in the season and didn't see a single one.

Arrived at the campground, I had a quick look at the Osprey Falls.

Osprey Falls

They are the reason why the boat ramp was built another 4 km up the lake.

You can't get any further by car. For the next day we will have to change to another vehicle.

The campground was beautifully situated on the shore of the lake. Due to all the trees, however, it is very shady and damp, and therefore cool. But again, it was forbidden to have campfires.