Fjordlands, British Columbia, Canada
Today we had the opportunity to explore a lovely section of British Columbia: Fjordland Provincial Park. Glaciers sculpted the landscape here, creating deep channels, U-shaped valleys, and towering vertical cliffs that drop straight down from rounded mountains that were once covered in ice. After the ice melted, seawater invaded the twisted channels that had been carved below sea level, creating the fjords that we can now cruise through.
By kayak and Zodiac, we got a closer look at Oatswish Bay, where a large, beautiful waterfall, cascading out of an unseen lake, dominated our view. We were the view for numerous harbor seals and bald eagles. Not all of our sightings were direct. On shore we found tracks of bears, deer, and a wolf. Calls of forest birds, including the varied thrush and winter wren could be heard through the protective cover.
As we departed the bay, continuing our northward journey and vigil along the Inside Passage, we spent time out on the decks in the pleasant afternoon and were rewarded with sightings of mountain goats browsing on the rocky slopes, and a black bear foraging just above the tide line. The day's experiences covered time geologically, as well as biologically; from the tracks of glaciers in the past, to the tracks of wildlife today, we felt the interconnectedness of our world.
Today we had the opportunity to explore a lovely section of British Columbia: Fjordland Provincial Park. Glaciers sculpted the landscape here, creating deep channels, U-shaped valleys, and towering vertical cliffs that drop straight down from rounded mountains that were once covered in ice. After the ice melted, seawater invaded the twisted channels that had been carved below sea level, creating the fjords that we can now cruise through.
By kayak and Zodiac, we got a closer look at Oatswish Bay, where a large, beautiful waterfall, cascading out of an unseen lake, dominated our view. We were the view for numerous harbor seals and bald eagles. Not all of our sightings were direct. On shore we found tracks of bears, deer, and a wolf. Calls of forest birds, including the varied thrush and winter wren could be heard through the protective cover.
As we departed the bay, continuing our northward journey and vigil along the Inside Passage, we spent time out on the decks in the pleasant afternoon and were rewarded with sightings of mountain goats browsing on the rocky slopes, and a black bear foraging just above the tide line. The day's experiences covered time geologically, as well as biologically; from the tracks of glaciers in the past, to the tracks of wildlife today, we felt the interconnectedness of our world.
