I had already been seeing lots of waterfalls & walking lots of miles at Wells Grey. I was having a great day.

But every great day has an ending, a sunset marking the boundary between day and night.

And that was precisely when I was going to try to visit the Western Rim of Helmcken Falls.

Even though I heard it still had a bit of snow & ice…

The trail reports were a few days old.I knew that with rising spring temperatures, the snow and ice had to be melting. Still, I took my trekking poles & microspikes with me – the better for handling whatever conditions I came across.

The walk to the rim is not all that interesting, just another Wells Grey forested walk. So I was glad to have my polls with me in order to propel myself.

Eventually, I reached the viewpoint, and it was only there that I encountered snow – hard packed and icy, but sloping away from the edge of the cliff. With spikes, I had plenty of traction, and since I was on slopes that went away from the cliff. The dangers were less.

(Well, other than erosion of the land underneath me, but my goal wasn’t to get that close to the edge of the rim.)

I’m sure what you really want is a decent-ish video clip of the falls in motion, eh?

I spent a good long while, watching the water, watching the sunset, and munching a few granola bars before I returned through the forest. I had the viewpoint to myself.

My poles helped propel me along on the way back, as I sung aloud to myself. Y’know, in case there were bears or something.

In total, I had hiked around fifteen miles that day, give or take.

And at the end of the day, I somehow still had enough energy left to pop open the propane grill, cook five sausages and consume three.

My sodium levels soared as my energy levels fell. I tucked into my sleeping bag and called it a night.