Helmcken Falls

Helmcken Falls is a waterfall on the Murtle River within the Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. The falls are the fourth highest in Canada [http://www.wellsgray.ca/helmcken.html Wells Gray Park website] and, with a Unit m|141|0 drop. The protection of Helmcken Falls was one of the major causes for the development of Wells Gray Provincial Park.

The falls are named for John Sebastian Helmcken, a physician with the Hudson's Bay Company who helped bring British Columbia into Canadian Confederation, but who never actually saw the falls himself.

Formation

Helmcken Falls owes its foundation to the deposits of volcanic rock in the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field that were placed down in the wide valley of the Murtle River. Layer upon layer of fresh lava created flat areas, over which enormous floods flowed during the last ice age. These floods shaped the upright cliff in the lava flows over which the river now flows. As a result, if it had not been for the volcanic eruptions, it is not likely that such a large wilderness region would have been made.

ee also

*Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field
*List of waterfalls
*Volcanism in Canada

Footnotes