Wells Gray Park Background Info

I've just been adding subjects below as I think of them, then expounding liberally. What other info do you need, or would you like to see?.... Some of this info will eventually be separated out and go into individual pages listed under 'Wells Gray Contents List.'

Wells Gray Provincial Park is in south central British Columbia and has several good canoeing lakes and lake systems. The one covered here is Clearwater and Azure Lakes. Hobson Lake is to the north of Clearwater and Azure and requires a backpack in or fly in (an 8+ mile hike). There are rental canoes there waiting if you're up to it. It is a great lake because of so little visitation, and no motors allowed. Murtle Lake is in the southeastern part of the park and is also a no motor lake (except an in-season resident ranger has a powerboat to get around in). There is no road to Murtle, you have to carry your gear in a mile from the parking lot. Despite that, it can get pretty busy in prime visitation season (The road that leads to the parking lot washed out spring of '02, it might be a while before it gets replaced, so Murtle Lake isn't paddleable, probably through '03). Mahood and Canim Lakes in the southwestern part of the park allow motors (roads to both lakes), but there is some canoeing done there. I've not been to the latter lake system so can't offer any info on them other than there are rapids and falls between those two lakes. There are many other smaller lakes in the Park, but there is little or no access to them for canoeing potential.

Fees:
In 2002 there was a charge of $5.00 (Canadian) a day (about $3.00 US) per person for overnight camping while on any of the lakes in the Park.

Type of craft recommended:
You can use anything that floats, but light, fast lake touring canoes work best here as the paddling is all predominately still lakes. The short river section between Clearwater and Azure Lakes is big and wide open so requires minimal skills. It is not a rocky whitewater run, there are few obstacles other than possible sweepers along the banks (current under cutting trees which lean out over or into the current) or deadheads in the channel (stumps with tree trunks sticking up from the bottom). Both of those, especially the sweepers are probably the most problem in the spring when levels are high and things are changing rapidly (pun intended - no, I'm not sorry!). On the lakes, wind can be a problem, which means waves, so a seaworthy boat is recommended. Sea kayaks would be fine, they're just harder to load with the creature comforts I like to haul along. I've seen kayaks on all the lakes I've been on in this Park.

Motorboats and Outfitters:
Motor boats are allowed on Clearwater and Azure Lakes (but not on Murtle or Hobson if they're that repulsive to you). They have not been a problem to us in our trips there. In fact, we've utilized the shuttle service and just taken a leisurely paddle back to the boat ramp for some of our trips to this area. Plan on having to share campsites with power boaters, though there is one campsite on each lake that is reserved for canoes and kayaks only. Osprey campground on Azure, and Ivor Creek on Clearwater. There are a few outfitters that operate short commercial tours on Clearwater and Azure Lakes (dunno about the other lakes). They tend to use the same campsites most of the time, but I don't know which ones. Their groups are generally not large (more than a dozen?), but I'm sure that they do get occasional groups that might overrun smaller campgrounds. Outfitters do have one or two campgrounds on Clearwater Lake that are reserved solely for their use (and are not marked on any of the Park maps).

Weather:
Count on some rain (long, hard rain), but it can be predominately sunny, too. You pays your money and takes your chances, like the rest of us. Wind can also be a problem in camp, so be prepared with tarps and things to do when you can't move in the canoes, or even be comfortable outside your tents for very long. There isn't any reliable climactic data for the Park area available. As a general rule, spring is the driest season and summer the wettest.

Bugs & Critters:
As a general rule mosquitoes aren't real bad on Clearwater and Azure Lakes, but it would be foolish to not bring protection (DEET and/or headnet, plus...). Mosquitoes are much worse over on Murtle Lake in the eastern portion of the Park. We have experienced mosquitoes, biting no-see-ums, and biting flies on Clearwater and Azure, and I'm sure there can be blackflies earlier in the spring. Squirrels and chipmunks can rob food, and there are bears around, both blackies and grizzlies. Use the food caches and it could prove wise to have and carry pepper spray. Use it only when necessary. Firearms are not allowed. There is some poison ivy in the Park, but not in the Clearwater-Azure-Hobson area that I know of.

Season:
I'm not sure when spring thaw or freeze up are, the guidebook below might say. It does say that the road to Clearwater Lake closes in early November, so come before that if you don't want to miles and miles with all your gear (and break ice on the lakes to paddle!). I'd think the lakes would all be ice free by mid-May. The bugs will be worse in the spring, I'd recommend summer or early fall for a paddling visit. Canada has a holiday equivalent to Labor Day, usually the same weekend, and after that is certainly less crowded than before it because kids are back in school and most people have to be home for that

Park Elevations:
Surface elevation of canoeable lakes is given in the list below, though remember that levels can be much higher in the spring during high runoff. There are pollen rings around picnic tables and trees in some campsites that show many of them are flooded out early in the season.

• Clearwater Lake - 2228 feet (679 meters)
• Azure Lake - 2234 feet (681 meters)
• Hobson Lake - 2815 feet (858 meters)
• Murtle Lake - 3500 feet (1067 meters)
• Canim Lake - 2532 feet (772 meters)
• Mahood Lake - 2067 feet (630 meters)

Hiking from the lakes:
There are a few established hiking trails from campsites on the lakes. On Azure there's the hike to Rainbow Falls (short and easy quarter mile?), but you can extend it to above the falls. The hike to Huntley Col from Four and a Half Mile Campgound is steep, but done regularly, even by "old ladies." The Hobson Lake Trail (8 miles, one way) takes off from the Clearwater River not too far upstream of its outlet into Clearwater Lake. It is not maintained at the present time because the Lickskillet Creek bridge was washed out a few years ago. Hopefully it will be rebuilt and the trail cleaned up. I've not done any hiking on Clearwater, but a trail is shown up Zodiac Mountain from Huckleberry Campground.

Geology:
The Clearwater and Azure Lake shores are glacial till (outwash gravel) and moraines from the Pleistocene glaciers that disappeared about ten to twelve thousand years ago. They lie on old schist (metamorphosed ocean sediments I think, on the order of 600-750 million years old). The south end of Clearwater Lake is narrowed by a young (7,000 years old) lava flow from the volcanic fields to the east. That means that everything you see is either pretty old or very young, geologically speaking, and the Ice-Age glaciers really changed things a lot. Most of the campsites on Clearwater and Azure Lakes are also very young, because they're placed on stream outwash that has been placed since the glaciers gouged the lakes out.

Further References:
"Nature Wells Gray" by Trevor Goward -- an informative guide book to the whole park. 224 pages, paperback, Lone Pine Publishing and Friends of Wells Gray Park, ISBN: 155105065X; (December 1996). (Available from Amazon.com or Friends of Wells Gray, URL below)
"Exploring Wells Gray Park" by Roland Neave -- not as thorough as the above book (my opinion). 258 pages, paperback, Sandhill Books / Sandhill Book Marketing; ISBN: 0969349327; 4th ed., rev. and expanded. edition, (date?). (Available from Amazon.com or Friends of Wells Gray, URL below)
"Canoe Trips British Columbia," by Jack Wainwright, Wainbay Enterprises, 1994 -- not seen it just heard about it). ? pages, Summit Productions; ISBN: 1896217001; (February 2002). (Available from Amazon.com)
Official Park Web site: http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/wells.htm
Other "unofficial" Web sites with info on the park:
http://www.wellsgray.ca/ (not much on paddling, but has links to more)
http://www.ntvalley.com/wellsgray/ (no paddling info, but has community links for info)
http://www.clearwaterwellsgray.com/ (more community info, little or no paddling)
http://www.friendsofwellsgraypark.org/ (the Park preservation organization)
There are many other commercial pages, lodges, tour companies (raft, kayak, canoe) that have Web sites that give info on the park. A Google.com search (words: Wells Gray Park) will bring up gobs, or many are linked from above listed sites.

For more info, canoe rentals, or water taxi services:
Clearwater Lake Tours
Box 507
Clearwater, BC Canada V0E 1N0
250-674-2121 (phone)
250-674-3364
info@clearwaterlaketours.com
http://www.clearwaterlaketours.com/
Gordon Jones, owner
Mike and Doris, plus others, work for him.

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Revised: 23 November, 2002
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