Helmcken Falls is a

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

on the

Murtle River The Murtle River is a river in east-central British Columbia, Canada. It rises from a large unnamed glacier in the Cariboo Mountains at an elevation of and flows southwest for to the head of gigantic Murtle Lake. The river also drains Murtle Lake ...

within

Wells Gray Provincial Park Wells Gray Provincial Park is a large wilderness park located in east-central British Columbia, Canada. The park protects most of the southern, and highest, regions of the Cariboo Mountains and covers 5,250 square kilometres (524,990 hectares or ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The protection of Helmcken Falls was one of the reasons for the creation of Wells Gray Provincial Park in 1939. Helmcken Falls is the fourth highest waterfall in Canada, measured by total straight drop without a break. Higher Canadian waterfalls are

Hunlen Falls Hunlen Falls is a waterfall located at the mouth of Turner Lake in the Pacific Ranges of British Columbia, Canada. With an estimated height of , it is tied with Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park for having the fourth tallest single drop of any ...

Tweedsmuir Provincial Park Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park is a provincial park covering parts of the eastern Kitimat Ranges, northern Pacific Ranges, and the Rainbow Range in British Columbia, Canada. It was established on May 21, 1938 in the western interior of the pro ...

Takakkaw Falls Takakkaw Falls (; also spelled Takkakaw) is a waterfall located in Yoho National Park, near Field, British Columbia in Canada. The falls have a total height of , making them the second tallest waterfall in Canada. The main drop of the waterfall h ...

Yoho National Park Yoho National Park ( ) is a National Parks of Canada, national park of Canada. It is located within the Canadian Rockies, Rocky Mountains along the western slope of the Continental Divide of the Americas in southeastern British Columbia, bordered ...

, and

Della Falls Della Falls is a waterfall located within Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. With a total height of , it ranks as the 16th tallest confirmed waterfall in Canada and the second tallest on Vancouver Island a ...

Strathcona Provincial Park Strathcona Provincial Park is the oldest provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, and the largest on Vancouver Island. Founded in 1911, the park was named for Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, a wealthy philanthropi ...

, all in British Columbia. There are six other waterfalls on the Murtle River, upstream from Helmcken Falls. The others are The Mushbowl,

Dawson Falls Dawson Falls is one of seven waterfalls on the Murtle River in Wells Gray Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada. Name origin Dawson Falls was named in 1913 by land surveyor Robert Henry Lee after George Herbert Dawson, the Surveyor-General fo ...

Majerus Falls Majerus Falls is one of seven waterfalls on the Murtle River west of Murtle Lake in Wells Gray Provincial Park, east-central British Columbia, Canada. Majerus Falls is high and wide, a similar width to Dawson Falls downstream.Neave, Roland (202 ...

Horseshoe Falls Horseshoe Falls is the largest of the three waterfalls that collectively form Niagara Falls on the Niagara River along the Canada–United States border. Approximately 90% of the Niagara River, after diversions for hydropower generation, flows ...

Meadow Falls Meadow Falls is one of seven waterfalls on the Murtle River west of Murtle Lake in Wells Gray Provincial Park, east-central British Columbia, Canada. Meadow Falls is high.Neave, Roland (2015). ''Exploring Wells Gray Park'', 6th edition. Wells Gra ...

and

McDougall Falls McDougall Falls is a waterfall on the Murtle River in Wells Gray Provincial Park, east-central British Columbia, Canada. McDougall Falls is located 5 km downstream from the Diamond Lagoon of Murtle Lake. It is 14 m high. A hiking trail follows th ...

. Only Helmcken, The Mushbowl and Dawson can be reached by road. Majerus, Horseshoe and McDougall Falls are accessed by trails. Meadow Falls is very difficult to view, except by air.Neave, Roland (2023). ''Exploring Wells Gray Park'', 7th edition. Wells Gray Tours, Kamloops, BC. .

Discovery and naming

The

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

surveyors in the 1870s passed to the north and made no mention of seeing the falls. Credit for discovering Helmcken Falls goes to Robert Henry Lee (1859–1935), a land surveyor working for the British Columbia government. In 1911, Lee was awarded a four-year contract to survey lands in the North Thompson and Clearwater Valleys. By 1913, he was working south of the Murtle River laying out lots for homesteaders. On July 24, 1913, he walked west along the Murtle River from his remote camp and reached the top of the waterfall. He was so impressed that he wrote a letter to Sir Richard McBride, Premier of British Columbia, requesting that the falls be named "McBride Falls". Three weeks later, Lee received a reply from the Premier stating that the waterfall was instead to be called Helmcken Falls. This name honoured

John Sebastian Helmcken John Sebastian Helmcken (June 5, 1824 – September 1, 1920) was a British Columbia physician who played a prominent role in bringing the province into Canadian Confederation. He was also the founding president of the British Columbia Medic ...

, a physician with the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

who arrived in Victoria in 1850. He helped bring British Columbia into

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Canada, Dom ...

in 1871. Dr. Helmcken died in 1920 at the age of 95, but never actually saw the falls himself.

Access and trails

A short paved side road from the main Wells Gray Park road leads to Helmcken Falls. A viewing platform on the rim of the canyon provides a panorama of the falls and canyon. ''Brink Trail:'' A 4-km long trail starts near

and follows the south bank of the Murtle River to the brink of Helmcken Falls. This walk takes about 1 hours each way. There are no fences at the end of this trail so caution is important, especially with children and pets. ''Helmcken Canyon:'' A 30-minute walk west from the main viewpoint follows the rim of Helmcken Canyon to an overlook of the meeting of the Murtle and Clearwater Rivers, about below. ''Gatling Gorge trail:'' Gatling Gorge is the narrowest point of the Clearwater River, about across. It is at the head of Helmcken Canyon, upstream from the confluence with the Murtle River. A trail from the main Helmcken Falls viewpoint accesses this gorge and takes about 1.5 hours each way.

Formation

Helmcken Falls drops over the western escarpment of the Murtle Plateau. This huge lava deposit in the

Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field The Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field, also called the Clearwater Cone Group, is a potentially active monogenetic volcanic field in east-central British Columbia, Canada, located approximately north of Kamloops. It is situated in the Cariboo ...

was erupted from nearby fissures starting 200,000 years ago and filled the wide valley of the Clearwater River. Layer upon layer of fresh lava created the plateau, then enormous floods eroded the lava at the close of the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

, about 10,000 years ago. These floods created Helmcken Canyon below the falls.

Winter viewing

Most tourists see Helmcken Falls in summer. A winter visit is worthwhile because the ice cone at the base often grows to 50 m tall and sometimes even higher in very cold snowy winters. It has occasionally been seen reaching halfway up the falls. The best time to view the ice cone is from late January to the end of February. The cone collapses inward sometime during March and some remnants are still visible in June. The road is plowed and sanded in winter and volunteers maintain the trails. Snow tires are essential and tire chains are recommended as a safety precaution. A network of cross-country ski trails starts near Dawson Falls, but there has been no grooming since the winter of 2011–2012.

Ice climbing

Helmcken Falls has some of the world's highest graded ice climbs, most notably, ''Spray On'' (W10, 2010), ''Wolverine'' (W11, 2011), ''Interstellar Spice'' (W12, 2016), and ''Mission to Mars'' (W13, 2020). Helmcken has been called the

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

of ice climbing.

References

External links

* *{{cite web , last = , first = , title =Helmcken Falls , work = World Waterfall Database , publisher = Bryan Swan & Dean Goss , date = 1985–2008 , url =http://www.worldwaterfalldatabase.com/waterfall.php?num=418 , format = , doi = , accessdate = 2008-11-07 Waterfalls of British Columbia Volcanism of British Columbia Wells Gray-Clearwater Kamloops Division Yale Land District