Wells Gray is all about waterfalls. The park has 39 named falls and hundreds more unnamed, carved out by fast-flowing rivers and creeks cutting through the interior plateau. One of the best things about a day here is how easy it is to link the highlights together, with several of the standout falls reached via short walks straight off the Clearwater Valley Road.

Dawson Falls is an easy first stop, a compact horseshoe-shaped cascade close to the road. Spahats Falls is one of the most dramatic, dropping around 80 metres through a narrow notch in the rock, with excellent viewpoints looking down into the canyon. Bailey’s Chute is a different style entirely, a wide, powerful rush of water sliding and surging over the rocks, often at its most impressive in early summer. And then there’s Helmcken Falls, the headline act for most visitors, plunging 141 metres into a deep canyon below and giving you that big, classic Wells Gray moment.

As you travel along the valley road, it’s also worth stopping at the Green Mountain Viewpoint, which gives you a wide panorama over the surrounding forest and hills and really shows the scale of the wilderness you’re travelling through.

For walking options, the information centre in Clearwater is the best place to pick up the latest trail suggestions and conditions. That said, if you’d like to get more out of the park, we do recommend a guided walk. Local guides add a lot with their knowledge of the ecology and geology, and they’re excellent at spotting the details you might otherwise miss, including wildlife such as bears, deer and eagles.