Qualla: Della Falls

Della Falls: Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bzargarian (talk) (Uploads), CC BY-SA 3.0. Joe Drinkwater named a lot of things after himself -- his creek, his trail, the remains of his aerial tramway still rusting near the cliff face. But the waterfall he named after his wife. In 1899, the prospector and trapper stumbled upon a cascade plunging 440 meters down a sheer rock wall deep in what is now Strathcona Provincial Park, on the rugged spine of Vancouver Island. He called it Della Falls, and then he built a 16-kilometer trail so other people could see it too. The falls were already well known to First Nations peoples long before Drinkwater arrived, but it was his name -- or rather, his wife's -- that stuck on the maps.

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Image: Bzargarian (talk) (Uploads) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Della Falls: The Long Way In

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fraser.harris, Public domain. Reaching Della Falls requires commitment that borders on devotion. There is no road to the trailhead. The only practical approach begins with a 35-kilometer boat crossing of Great Central Lake, a narrow finger of glacial water stretching deep into the mountains. The sole road acc...

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Image: Fraser.harris | Public domain

Della Falls: A Ribbon of White Against Black Rock

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Su-Laine, CC BY-SA 2.0. At 440 meters, Della Falls ranks among the tallest waterfalls in Canada -- the 16th highest confirmed, and the second tallest on Vancouver Island after Kiwi Falls in Schoen Lake Provincial Park to the north. The water drops in a segmented cascade, threading its way down a dark ba...

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Image: Su-Laine | CC BY-SA 2.0

Della Falls: Drinkwater's Legacy

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brandon Godfrey, CC BY-SA 2.0. Joe Drinkwater was not just passing through. He established a gold mining operation near the falls, and the evidence of his ambition is scattered across the landscape -- the rusted cables of his aerial tramway, the cleared path of his hand-built trail along Drinkwater Creek. He w...

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Image: Brandon Godfrey | CC BY-SA 2.0

Della Falls: Wild Heart of the Island

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Clayoquot, CC BY-SA 3.0. Della Falls sits within the boundaries of Strathcona Provincial Park, British Columbia's oldest provincial park, established in 1911. The surrounding landscape is a study in extremes -- glacier-carved valleys, peaks exceeding 2,000 meters, old-growth forests of western redcedar a...

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Image: Clayoquot | CC BY-SA 3.0