We only spent half a day in Prince Rupert, a sleepy-looking town at the end of Canada’s Highway 16, that is supposedly a major port hub linking the country with Asia (Shanghai - Prince Rupert in 11 days, as they boast in local visitor centre). Apparently, the scandinavian countries played an important role in developing the port - their flags (including Finland) fly in local park, and the town does have a similar feeling as northern Norway. We managed to fit on a ferry that sails to Haida Gwaii - an archipelago of islands ca. 100km off the coast.
Haida Gwaii means „the land of Haida“ in local native language; the islands have been home to Haida people for thousands of years (they were connected to the mainland around 14 000 years ago). Today, the local population of less than 5000 people lives in several small villages mostly scattered along the eastern and northern coast of the bigger Graham Island.
The main road leads for 100km from Daajing Giids (Queen Charlotte), where the ferry arrives, to Masset in the north, the biggest settlement in the archipelago. The area in the north is known for long beaches, culminating at Rose Split, where the first Haida people were discovered in a giant clam by the Raven, according to the Haida mythology.
The western side of Graham Island is not populated at all, cut away by the mountains and ancient forests. The coast is only accessible by logging roads, which are in a not-so-great condition. Still, we made it to the Rennell Sound (although driving 35 km took us like 1.5 hours), where we biked through the old forest (with some parts cut out by aggresive logging) and hanged out at a remote and empty beach. Since the west side of the archipelago is exposed to the Pacific Ocean and washed out by its currents, this is where lot of trash carried by them is thrown ashore by the waves. Specifically, we came across lot of trash from Japan, brought here by the Japan Current.
A big part of southern island, along with tens of smaller islands around it, is now protected as Gwaii Haanas National Park - an effect of the long battle the Haida people have fought with the local logging industry, which is the main business here. In the park, there are several sites of ancient Haida villages, where the remnants of old log houses and totem poles can still be seen. Those villages were mainly abandoned during the smallpox epidemic (which decimated the Haida population, as was so often the case for Native Americans). Today, they are not maintained - according to the Haida ways, the houses and the poles should be let to go back to nature. They are guarded by Haida watchmen, who make sre that the tourists don’t destroy them (as cases of stealing parts of totems did take place).
As there are no roads that go to Gwaii Haanas, we went on a zodiac tour to the Kuuna site - the most accessible among the ancient villages. On the way, we saw a group of bears crowding at the river outlet, waiting for the salmon (they prevented us from going ashore to walk in the forest), as well as tons of seals and a sea lion (no killer whale though :( ).
Before leaving the islands, we caught the Edge of the World Music Festival - the biggest event of the year in Haida Gwaii. It’s a mix of local artists from the archipelago, both traditional and modern, as well as bigger names from B.C. and Canada at large. We didn’t really know any band, but we still had a great time!
