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This
North Island Map contains many links to our pages on Towns,
Lakes, Parks, Campgrounds and ferry routes. Each green triangle
is a link to a Park. Click on a live area of the map to link
to the desired page.
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As 97 percent of
the population lives on the southern half of Vancouver Island, outdoor
recreationists in search of solitude come north. Much of Vancouver
Island once looked as the north still does today.
Thanks to recent government protection, some of the remaining wilderness,
such as Brooks Peninsula,
a stubby 14 km long projection on the northwest coast of the island,
has been preserved. Other places, such as the most northerly tip of
the island, are sheltered by the elements from the preying eye of
industry.
Cape Scott Provincial
Park is one of the wildest, windiest, most woebegone locales in
the province for human habitation. Journeying to Brooks Peninsula
or Cape Scott is only for those whose mettle has been tested by the
repeated exposure to the bellows and blast-furnace of nature in the
raw.
You do have to travel farther afield here in order to penetrate the
cloud-laced valleys, coastal rain forest and the open ocean waters
of the sounds like Nootka and Kyuquot. Some of this landscape's mysteries
lie tucked away inside the vaulted domes of underground caverns. Afloat
in a sea kayak on an open sound, or deep inside the Quatsino cave
system, be prepared to experience a blend of connectedness and jubilation,
isolation and terror, when adventuring here. One thing is guaranteed:
at the end of the day, you'll sleep well.
Gentler conditions prevail in the sheltered waters of Johnstone Strait,
where the kwakwaka'wakw First Nations are the traditional gatekeepers.
To experience a tranquility that passes all description, paddle these
waters where whales rub and salmon run in summer months.
Getting There
The top half of 450-km long Vancouver Island is served by a maze
of logging roads and Highway 19 (North Island Highway), which links
Campbell River with Port
Hardy, the southern terminus of BC Ferries' Inside
Passage and Discovery Coast
Routes. BC Ferries links the north and central coasts (Prince Rupert
and Bella Coola respectively) with Vancouver Island at Port Hardy.
Travel to ports in Nootka Sound
and neighbouring Kyuquot Sound to the north is via MV
Uchuck lll, a working freighter based in Gold
River that provides a year-round passenger and freight service. |
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