Things to do
Things to do in Clearwater
Clearwater’s list is one road and one town, in that order: the Clearwater Valley Road runs from the visitor centre past four of the great waterfalls of Canada to a wilderness lake, and the town at its foot holds a swimming lake, a ski hill, groomed ski trails and a Saturday market. Everything below is real and sourced; the discipline throughout is that no prices are printed — costs are left to venues on the day — and the park’s two hard rules (no fuel, no cell coverage up the road) are stated where they bite. Curated November 2026.
1. Stand in front of Helmcken Falls
The headline. Helmcken Falls drops the Murtle River 141 metres in one unbroken plunge into its canyon — the fourth highest waterfall in Canada — and the viewing platform (46.5 km up the Clearwater Valley Road) puts you across the gorge from the full drop. It is a short walk from the parking area, and the rim trail extends the visit for anyone who wants the brink as well. Go twice if you can: once in the summer roar, and once when winter has built the ice cone halfway up the falls — the road is ploughed this far all winter precisely because people do.
2. Make Spahats Falls your first stop
Ten minutes up the park road, Spahats Falls is the overture: Spahats Creek threads a keyhole in the rock face and falls into the Granite Canyon of the Clearwater River, far below the viewpoint. The viewing area was rebuilt and reopened in May 2025 with a fully accessible, stair-free platform and a new interpretive trail — wheelchair and scooter users get the same unobstructed canyon view as everyone else. If you have only two hours in Wells Gray, Tourism Wells Gray’s own advice starts here; they are right.
3. Walk through old growth to Dawson Falls
At 40.9 km, a ten-minute walk through old-growth forest brings you to Dawson Falls, where the Murtle River spreads some 90 metres wide and pours about 18 metres over a lava lip — a little Niagara, all width and thunder instead of height. The viewpoint sits close enough to feel the spray, and the riverbank below the falls is the park’s easiest picnic-with-a-soundtrack. Pair it with Helmcken, five road-kilometres further: same river, two completely different falls.
4. Go behind the curtain at Moul Falls
The park’s party trick: at Moul Falls, the trail does not stop at a railing — it threads behind the waterfall, into the wet, echoing cave the water has carved, and out the other side. Expect spray, expect to get damp, and expect it to be the waterfall your kids describe at school. The walk in is a proper forest hike, so give it the time it deserves rather than treating it as a photo stop; it is the one falls here that asks something of you, and pays it back.
5. Drive to the end of the road: Clearwater Lake
The Clearwater Valley Road ends in wilderness. At 65.8 km the Clearwater Lake Campground sits at the south end of a long, fjord-like lake ringed by Cariboo Mountain peaks, and from the shore the lake chain runs on north — Clearwater Lake into Azure Lake, Rainbow Falls at its far shore — reachable by canoe over days, not hours. Rent a canoe or kayak, paddle an hour out and back, or simply stand at the lookout (68.6 km) and take the scale of it in. This is also the answer to “how wild is it, really?”: the interior beyond the lake is float-plane and long-hike country, and it starts at the end of a public road you just drove.
6. Swim the town lake: Dutch Lake
Back in town, Dutch Lake is the summer living room: a sandy swimming beach with clear, calm water, picnic tables, and the Dutch Lake Resort renting canoes, kayaks and paddleboards from its private dock. Fish it, paddle it at first light, or do what the locals do — swim before dinner at the resort’s Painted Turtle Restaurant on the waterfront. In a list dominated by a giant park, the town lake is the quiet entry: no drive, no planning, just a towel.
7. Ride or ski the Candle Creek trails
East of town, the Candle Creek network packs about 13 km of forest trails into Clearwater’s backyard, and it changes costume with the seasons: a mountain bike park in summer, and in winter a groomed cross-country ski and snowshoe system run by the Wells Gray Outdoors Club. Bike rentals in town come from Wells Gray Outfitters. The network’s party piece is February’s Birchleg (see item 10), but its ordinary days are the point: this is where Clearwater actually exercises, before work and after school, all year.
8. Ski a hill the town runs itself
The Clearwater Ski Hill (566 Dunn Lake Road) is community skiing in the original sense: a volunteer-run non-profit on a slope skied since 1965, a fast T-bar, about ten trails, night skiing, cheap-end rentals and a lodge that hosts the valley’s weddings in the off-season. It is not a resort and does not pretend to be one — and it comes with the honest condition that governs it: snow decides. The hill opens when its base allows and some winters it never opens, so check its channels the week you go. In summer, the same slopes hold a free public disc golf course.
9. Climb to the Green Mountain viewing tower
The panorama stop: a side road off the Clearwater Valley Road climbs to the Green Mountain viewing tower, a wooden lookout above the park’s southern end. From the top: the Clearwater valley unfolding below, the Trophy Mountains across the way, and the volcanic plateau the waterfalls pour off laid out like a map of the trip you are on. It pairs with the falls corridor the way a map pairs with a journey — go late in the day, when the light rakes across the valley, and the whole Wells Gray geometry suddenly makes sense.
10. Time your trip to a town fixture
Pick a date and the town performs. Canada Day (1 July) is the District’s community barbecue on Dutch Lake Beach — mayor and council on the grills, face painting for the kids, every year, rain or shine. The Clearwater Farmer’s Market runs Saturday mornings, 9 to noon, from May to Thanksgiving on the Dutch Lake Community Centre field. And the Birchleg owns a mid-February Saturday: the whole valley’s skiers in Viking dress at Candle Creek. The events page carries each one, labelled at the strength it earned — including which dates are confirmed and which are the annual pattern waiting for organisers to publish.
The honest frame: fees, seasons and order
Order: visitor centre first, then the corridor in road order — Spahats, Dawson, Helmcken, the tower on the way down, Clearwater Lake when you have the full day. Seasons: mid-May to mid-October is the park’s main season (campgrounds serviced late May to mid-September); November to April trades the full road for the ploughed stretch to Helmcken, the ski trails and the ice cone. Fees: no price is printed on this page, deliberately — park day use carries no entry fee, and every rental, ticket and table is left to its operator’s own current terms. Fuel and signal: there is no fuel and no cell coverage up the park road. Fill up in Clearwater; the wilderness starts where the bars drop, and that is rather the point.
Common questions
What is the top thing to do in Clearwater?
Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Provincial Park - a 141-metre plunge, Canada's fourth highest waterfall, reached by the Clearwater Valley Road from town. Pair it with Spahats and Dawson Falls on the same road, and with a swim at Dutch Lake back in town.
How many waterfalls are in Wells Gray Park?
39 named waterfalls are on the park's books and Tourism Wells Gray counts 42 - either way it is branded Canada's Waterfalls Park. Four of the greats sit on one road from Clearwater: Spahats, Dawson, Moul and Helmcken.
What is there to do in Clearwater in winter?
Cross-country skiing on the groomed Candle Creek trails, the volunteer-run Clearwater Ski Hill when its snow base allows (some winters it cannot open), the ice cone at Helmcken Falls on the ploughed park road, February's Birchleg ski day in Viking dress, and public skating at the North Thompson Sportsplex.
Is there a beach in Clearwater?
Yes - Dutch Lake, in the middle of town, has a sandy swimming beach with clear, calm water, picnic space and canoe, kayak and paddleboard rentals at Dutch Lake Resort. It is also where the town holds its Canada Day barbecue.
When is the Clearwater Farmer's Market?
Saturdays, 9 am to noon, from the first weekend of May until Thanksgiving, on the Dutch Lake Community Centre field at 209 Dutch Lake Road - North Thompson produce, grass-fed beef, baking, honey, mushrooms and local makers.
More to explore in Clearwater
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