[2] The park protects most of the southern, and highest, regions of the Cariboo Mountains and covers 5,415 square kilometres (541,516 hectares or 1.3 million acres).

Individual mountain groups dominate the topography of the northern park region and are separated by deep glacial valleys, several of which contain large lakes such as Clearwater, Azure and Hobson.

[4][6] The southern third of Wells Gray Park is traversed by the Clearwater Valley Road, although large areas are accessible only by trail.

The dominant topography features volcanic plateaus, lava flows and deep canyons which are crowned by several peaks over 2,300 m (7,546 ft) high.

[4] The eight highest mountains in Wells Gray Park are:[4] 1) Mount Lyons, 2946 m. The first recorded ascent was made by Bill McKenzie and Roger Wallis on August 18, 2005.

It is named after Chess Lyons, Wells Gray Park surveyor in 1940, naturalist, author, photographer, and explorer.

Hugh Neave, first to summit Garnet Peak, and Peter Cowan attempted to climb it in 1972 via Hobson Glacier to the east, but were forced to turn back by difficult terrain.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Wells Gray area was a valued hunting ground to the Secwepemc (Shuswap), Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) and Canim Lake Indigenous People.

When they arrived at the mouth of the Clearwater River, they noted its distinct clarity compared to the muddy North Thompson and named it Clear Water.

In 1863, the first tourists, Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle, traveled through the North Thompson Valley and solidified the Clearwater River name by publishing it in their journal, The Northwest Passage by Land (London, 1865).

When the more southern Kicking Horse Pass was chosen instead in 1881, all the meticulously examined routes in what is now Wells Gray Park were abandoned.

[4] The first homesteaders in what is now Wells Gray Park were John Ray in 1911 at The Horseshoe, who was given land by the Canim Lake Band, and Michael Majerus in 1912 on the Murtle River near Dawson Falls.

Other settlers who arrived between 1918 and 1925 were the Ludtke family, Lewis Rupell, Pete McDougal, Jack Zellers, Dave Anderson, Alex Fage and Herman Ordschig.

It started from a lightning strike west of the Clearwater River, smouldered for several weeks, then was fanned by winds and moved rapidly north through the homesteads.

The Ludtke family immersed themselves in Battle Creek for 8 hours, dampening some blankets to cover their heads, and their livestock and even wild animals joined them for protection.

After its initial rampage, it burned slowly in the marshes of the Murtle Plateau until mid-August, when it was finally extinguished by a heavy rain.

The Minister of Lands, Duff Pattullo, was not interested and rebuffed the club, stating that there were no benefits to protecting waterfalls which "wouldn't go away".

Finally the government began to listen, mostly because a new Minister of Lands, Arthur Wellesley Gray, was interested in parks and recognized the growing need to preserve special places in British Columbia.

Lyons and Campbell are responsible for about a quarter of its current place names, all carefully researched to remember settlers, prospectors, explorers, forest rangers, and other people who had lived and worked in the Clearwater Valley.

In November 1947, prior to the flood, the Federal Minister of Public Works had proposed the creation of a joint federal-provincial committee to study the Fraser River's water resources.

[citation needed] The Fraser River committee proposed two dams, one just upstream from Clearwater and one at Sabre Tooth Rapids.

In the late 1940s, the Aluminum Company of Canada examined the power potential of Helmcken Falls, but chose Kitimat instead, thereby flooding northern Tweedsmuir Park instead of Wells Gray.

The dams would be located 4 km (2.5 mi) upstream from the North Thompson confluence, at the lower end of Granite Canyon, at Sabre Tooth Rapids, near Myanth Falls (upper and lower dams), at the outlet of Hobson Lake and on the low pass between Hobson and Quesnel Lakes.

The public was not too concerned about losing remote preserves such as Wells Gray Park, when British Columbia had so much wilderness land.

In just a decade, the environmental movement had gained power and credibility in the province[citation needed], and BC Hydro's interest in the Clearwater quickly caught the attention of the Shuswap-Thompson River Research and Development Association (STRRADA) and the newly formed Yellowhead Ecological Association based in Clearwater, BC.

A variety of factors enrich the Park and these include the 1926 forest fire, the proximity of the Fraser Plateau westward, the Cariboo Mountains northeastward, the interior wet belt eastward, and the semi-desert zone to the south.

Within the Park, micro-climates, altitude, soil type, and availability of water all have their effects and contribute to the existence of this amazing variety of plant and animal life.