page_title: Clearwater River (British Columbia)
section_title: Oddities
hierarchical_section_title: Clearwater River (British Columbia) / Oddities
caption_attribution_description: English: White Horse Bluff, on the Clearwater River, British Columbia, Canada.
context_page_description: The Clearwater River is the largest tributary of the North Thompson River, joining it at the community of Clearwater, British Columbia. The Clearwater rises from glaciers in the Cariboo Mountains and flows in a mostly southerly direction for 201 km to the North Thompson. Its entire course, except the last 5 km, is within Wells Gray Provincial Park. Its confluence with the North Thompson is protected by North Thompson River Provincial Park.
  There are two large lakes on the Clearwater River. Hobson Lake is 35 km long and averages 1.5 km wide. Clearwater Lake is 24 km long and averages 2 km wide. The Clearwater's largest tributaries are Hobson Creek, Goat Creek, Lickskillet Creek, Azure River, Falls Creek, Murtle River, Mahood River, Hemp Creek, Grouse Creek, and Spahats Creek.
  The river is popular for fly fishing, whitewater kayaking, whitewater rafting, hiking, and wildlife viewing.
context_section_description: Many rivers that have meanders have several of them. The Clearwater River has only one meander, called The Horseshoe. See 'Geography' section above.
  Every major tributary to the Clearwater River has a waterfall on it. Falls Creek Falls even drops directly into the Clearwater River.
  97% of the Clearwater River shoreline is protected by Wells Gray Provincial Park.
  There are only two private properties on the Clearwater River within Wells Gray Park. One was owned by industrialist H.R. MacMillan and was his private fishing retreat starting in 1934. He donated the property and cabin to Westminster Abbey, east of Vancouver, in 1972. The other property is Clearwater River Chalet, a wilderness rental cabin operated by Wells Gray Tours. The properties consist of about 70 acres each.
  White Horse Bluff rises 200 m (656 ft) vertically from the east bank of the Clearwater River about 32.5 km (20.2 mi) north of Clearwater. The south side of the cliffs has a rare volcanic formation called the Rock Roses. Unlike most formations of columnar basalt which are like organ pipes, these are horizontal and the ends of the columns point out, rather like the tiles on a shower wall. Further west, the columns suddenly change direction and resemble the wall of a log house.
  Beside the Clearwater River at the base of White Horse Bluff, there is a natural refrigerator. The McDiarmid family operated four fishing camps along the river from 1944 to 1970. One summer, they noticed a cold draft of air blowing outward from some cracks here. They enlarged it, built some walls and were able to keep ice solid and perishable foods cold even in the summer heat, truly a luxury in the wilderness. The refrigerator is still there today (although partly fallen in) and, when measured by this writer in June 2003, was 2 degrees Celsius inside.
  There is an abandoned donkey engine in the forest near the west bank of the Clearwater River at Marcus Falls. It can be seen from the viewpoint in late fall when leaves are off the trees, but otherwise it is not accessible. It was moved here in the winter of 1912-13 when the Canadian Northern Railway was being planned and some loggers figured they could get the contract for the Clearwater River bridge at Bailey's Chute if they had a donkey on site. The 10-ton machine was skidded over the ice of Canim Lake, rafted along Mahood Lake in the spring, then winched to this location. The men had already cut 9000 cubic meters of timber when the railway was confirmed along a different route.
caption: White Horse Bluff
exif: {"Image Make": "Nikon", "Image Model": "Nikon COOLSCAN V ED", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "3000", "Image YResolution": "3000", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Corel Photo Album 6", "Image DateTime": "2007:05:22 20:36:31", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "217", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "3000", "Thumbnail YResolution": "3000", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "548", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6185", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2604", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4059", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "\u0002", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[3, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "407"}