Thursday, June 25, 2009

Wells Gray Waterfalls and British Columbia's “state” bird (the mosquito)

Wells Gray Provincial Park an hour or so above Kamloops in BC. Spectacular waterfalls, beautiful lush forest and more mosquitos than I have ever seen in one place in my whole life (and I grew up in the tropics in Qld!) Still our dash and cover sightseeing was more than worth it. The Spahats waterfall when you first enter the park is an easy walk to a great viewing platform, the waterfall drops from a narrow cavern down, down, down. I am going to figure how to include good photos, because words can't describe.



I figured how to include photos :)

Then it started raining. The rain came and went the rest of our drive around Wells Gray Pronvincial Park. Unfortunately it seemed to bring out the mosquitos. 100's of them all over us. I had no jacket, but the kids did – so with jackets on and collars up – and mozzie swatting branches we walked the 500m to Dawson Falls. What was so cool about these falls was that you get to stand right on the end of them. You are literally a meter away from this powerful waterfall. Denny in particular was awestruck and just stood staring and staring. He will tell you that “Warderballs are my baborite” which is 2 year old for “Waterfalls are my favorite”.

The last waterfall we saw at Wells Gray Provincial park was Helmcken Falls. This is truly an amazing site. The waterfall has carved out a huge bowl – almost like a vase – where it hits the bottom and the mist of the waterfall fills this bowl.

As I already said, I will work on getting decent photos into the blog so you can get a feel for the amazing sites we are privileged to see on our adventures through Canada.

We are heading for 100 mile house next. But on our way we stopped at Lone Butte. A tiny town on the way. There was a rest area with a kids playground at the pyschological moment. After a short restroom break, and a long playground time, we noticed the gallery across the road. There was mural made out of wood. It was fascinating once we got up close. Hidden in the intricate carving was a frog, lady bug, herons, bears, salmon … the kids loved it. The open sign on the gallery came on as we were looking at the mural outside, so we ventured in. Once we got over the surprise of the 3 giant great dane dogs, we saw amazing eagles and other first nations inspired art. The artist was there and was great with the kids and told us about his art. It was a nice morning sidetrack on our way to 100 mile house.


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