It rises from a large unnamed glacier in the Cariboo Mountains at an elevation of 2,300 metres (7,500 ft) and flows southwest for 18 kilometres (11 mi) to the head of gigantic Murtle Lake.

Between 1872 and 1881, about 20 survey parties fanned out across British Columbia trying to find the best route for the new railway between Yellowhead Pass in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast.

When the more southern Kicking Horse Pass was chosen instead in 1881, all of these meticulously examined routes across the Canadian Cordilleran, including Hunter's, were abandoned.

[3] It was 40 years before the Murtle River area came under professional scrutiny again, this time by land surveyor Robert Lee.

Three weeks later, Lee received a reply of one sentence from the Premier which stated that the waterfall was to be called Helmcken Falls.

[3] The first crossing of the Murtle River was at its narrowest point called The Mushbowl and this was a rickety footbridge built in 1914.

The lava erupted about 200,000 years ago from fissures near McLeod Hill and filled the former valley to depths of up to 250 metres (820 ft).