When we hike in the hills above Tranquille Creek, the bluffs on the west side of Wheeler Mountain invite exploration.   The lava cliffs rise in stages but the most interesting section has 300 foot cliffs facing southwest.   We followed backroads and then worked our way over to the foot of the bluffs.   The route is off-trail and a slow-going traverse.

The deep gully between the slopes of Wheeler and the hills of Mara descends down to the river.   Eskers follow the line of the ice-melt from the last ice age.

We contoured around the tops of the eskers, working our way up to the cliffs.   The route across the bottom of the bluffs is a scramble with lots of loose material underfoot.

Cave pockets and alcoves can be found along the way.  We entered a deep crack in the cliffs and found a chimney route to the top.   We were able to work our way a bit up the route using a body-wedge technique to get on top of chock stones.   We could see that this could be climbed up and down, but climbing gear would be needed.

At the top, we entered the route into the chimney and could see that it could be rappelled down, a good reason for a return trip.

The top of the bluffs has fine views, especially of the Tranquille River Gorge.

The bluffs can be reached more easily using the backroad that goes toward Pruden Pass, then over the flanks of Mt. Wheeler (link).   We traversed over to those double tracks and followed them down for a 5km hike to the start area just above the tracks on the Tranquille – Red Lake Road.