Kayaking British Columbia: Paddling Where the Sky and Sea Are One

By Tara Davis, reporting from a National Geographic Young Explorers-funded expedition to sea kayak and explore the unique cultural heritage of British Columbia's Haida Gwaii archipelago. Photographs by Lauren Sinnott and Julia DeWitt.
 
At dawn, paddling the east coast of Moresby island, Haida Gwaii. The sun rises in the west as the night’s silhouette slips beneath the shape of Helmet island, one of 150 that make up the most remote archipelago on the west coast of Canada. Located 50 sea miles east of British Columbia and 40 miles south of Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island, Haida Gwaii stands on the outer edge of the continental shelf surrounded by ocean to the south and west. This shallow straight is known as the Hecate, Siigaay in Skidegate Haida language, and it is a notorious stretch of the Pacific. It gathers polar storms and generates swells that rock fisherman, sailors, and kayakers alike.

Sea Kayaking British Columbia: Islands at the Edge of the World

By Julia DeWitt, reporting from a National Geographic Young Explorers-funded expedition to sea kayak and explore the unique cultural heritage of British Columbia's Haida Gwaii archipelago.

Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago of roughly 150 islands that lies 75 miles west of the remote coastal town of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Nicknamed the “Galapagos of the North” for their remarkable ecological diversity, Haida Gwaii translates to mean “Islands of the People.” The Haida are the people that these islands belong to, and it is their rich history of conservation and cultural preservation paired with the landscape itself that has inspired us to first paddle its rough and pristine coastal waters. Our water expedition will be followed by time in the backcountry, with a stint in Skidegate learning more about the rich history of conservation activism and the concomitant cultural preservation movement that has developed there.