Sights and Sounds of British Columbia’s Wild West Coast
BRITISH COLUMBIA IS IMMENSE. I grew up here but have only seen a very small portion of it. It’s perhaps best known for its mountains, many of which are a short drive from one of the most livable cities on the planet: Vancouver. It might surprise you, though, that the west coast of the province is home to temperate rainforests that span from Vancouver Island in the south to BC’s central and north coasts, all the way up to Southeast Alaska.
These rainforests are full of ancient old-growth trees and home to a diverse population of wildlife that form as complex an ecosystem as anywhere else on Earth. They’ve also hosted human habitation for thousands of years; over a dozen First Nations tribes call this place home and have subsisted on land and sea, carving out long-standing traditions and cultures.
The Great Bear Rainforest, which covers around 32,000 square kilometers, is a particularly special region for its remoteness and pristine environment. To explore part of the area, we headed to Nimmo Bay Resort, a lodge so isolated it can only be reached by floatplane, helicopter, or boat. This is what I saw (and heard).
Carlo traveled to the Great Bear Rainforest as a guest of Destination BC and the Canadian Tourism Commission.