When we drive the Wells Gray corridor, we arrive at the end of the road at Cleawater Lake.   Beyond the campground and boat launch there are no roads, and anything beyond has limited access by boat and on a couple of trails.   The main trail of the area is the Chain Meadows Trail, with a short side route over to Sticta Falls and the Dragons Tongue (lava flow).   We hiked the whole Chain Meadows Loop recently, a 16.4km loop.

The trail can be hiked in either direction, but we chose to go up the hill from the campground.   The trail climbs the sidehill to the junction to Sticta Falls, which is a nice side trail, especially if you go down the side trail to the bottom of the falls.  

From the junction, the trail continues to climb to the Osprey Falls Viewpoint, a climb of 175m.   This is a nice spot for a short break after a half hour of hiking and for a good lookout down on the campground area and Osprey Falls,   In the Spring, the Falls doesn't have much of drop when the lake is high.   Clearwater Lake was formed when the Dragons Tongue lava flow blocked the Clearwater River 7500 years ago.  

From this point, the trail meanders for 5.5 km across the forested plateau past a number of wet areas.   Skunk cabbage was blooming along this section of trail.   The trail is in good shape, except for a few spots which get muddy in spring.  Chain Lake is mostly just a clear spot through the trees since the approaches are swampy.  

We continued past the lake and climbed a short section to the top of Easter Bluffs, so named because the profile of one of the vertical bluffs reminded someone of Easter Island.  The trail goes over the top of the bluffs, then winds down to the foot of the 10m cliffs.   Continuing northwest, the trail winds through mixed forest to a viewpoint looking north to Clearwater Lake.   Dominating the skyline is Garnet Peak, Mount Huntley, and Azure Peak, all snow-capped in the Spring.   This is a good spot for lunch.

On this day, the peaks were wreathed in clouds, but on the previous day, we paddled up to Divers Bluff and all the peaks were clear in front of blue skies.   This spot is worth hiking up to from the boat launch, a distance of 4km.

The trail from the lviewpoint down to the Boat Launch traverses gently down through old growth forest.   Giant cedars and hemlocks give the area a cathedral feeling.   The last kilometre of this section is along the lake starting across from Caribou Beach.  

From the boat launch to the campground is a 2.5 km trail along the shore of the lake.   Some parties may wish to leave a vehicle at the boat launch to reduce the length of the hike. 

Although this is a long hike, it a well-designed trail with easy climbs and descents, it has lots of variety of habitat to enjoy, and there are many fine views along the way.  

We were pleasantly surprised and will return to do this trail again.