The spectacular Wells Gray Park has many waterfalls

High up in Wells Gray Park, the Murtle River drops in stages over plateaus formed in three stages from hardened lava. Helmcken Falls is one of six waterfalls on this river.

The falls was named by Premier Richard McBride to honour R.S. Helmcken, a Hudson's Bay Company doctor who helped to get BC into the Canadian Confederation in 1871. However, although the doctor lived to 95, he never saw the falls.

Though the width is a narrow 75 metres, the vertical drop of Helmcken Falls is 141 metres, more than two and a half times the height of Niagara. 

It was early May when I took this photo; snow is still visible on the heavily shaded rocks in the gorge.

Wells Gray Park boasts 39 named waterfalls, and many others that have never been given names.