Anne Neave with notes from 1993 Friends of Wells Gray Park newsletter and Exploring Wells Gray Park (7th edition). After the 1926 fire, the Clearwater Valley experienced striking environmental changes. Chinook winds — previously unknown — became common as warm air flowed through the bare valley, spreading ashes everywhere. Caribou disappeared, while deer and moose thrived on new vegetation like willows, alders, and fireweed, which blanketed the …