Helmcken Falls, the tallest (463 ft) waterfall at Wells Gray park. The main viewpoint requires no hiking, while the route behind is an easy 5 mi round trip that starts at a nearby parking area. Known for its large snow cone, by 4/25 there was only enough left to block my view from behind. Kinda had bad timing for this overall, both too soon and too late and then I hit it with the sun both blazing and shadowed in the canyon.
Extra photos include a view of the snowpack behind obscuring the falls but maintaining the view out over the valley, a shot just upstream of the falls with a rainbow in the mist (would’ve been cool over the falls, not bitter at all haha) and a little tighter shot of the falls.
That’s the end of my time at Wells Gray, Spahats was under renovation still and the rest of the park was still closed for winter.
Very nice pictures. We used to sometimes drive up there even earlier in the year and the ice cone around the base of the falls would be complete so it would just look like the falls were dumping into the top of a big cup of ice.
Green mountain lookout in the park also has some nice views. And if you're up for a bit of a hike, the trophy mountain/meadows trail leads up to a nice alpine meadow that can be absolutely stuffed with wildflowers if you can get up there at the right time of year.
Green mountain lookout tower: https://i.imgur.com/1LgB8wt.jpeg
View from Trophy mountain: https://i.imgur.com/AkG87ER.jpeg
Trophy mountain meadow, too late in the year for the wildflowers https://i.imgur.com/sm9rBgw.jpeg
Thanks! Those are some good photos as well! Yeah, I considered doing green mtn lookout as I was passing through, but ended up not doing it. Think I was more interested in getting a shower in clearwater at that point or something haha, maybe next time. Pretty sure that road to Trophy mtn was still closed at the time but it also sounded like a good one.