Princess Louisa Inlet
White mists moving across the dark sheer granite faces lift, open and illuminate clumps of deep green conifers. Briefly, the yellow face of a big-leaf maple looks out. Following the recent rains, Chatterbox Falls is bursting over her last 120 ft drop and throwing up a huge watery plume from around the rocks at the base of the falls. Perhaps forty streams of water begin their relentless dripping descent thousands of feet above us, falling over the rocky ledges to land in the fiord, travel out to the Pacific Ocean with the tide, evaporate into the clouds and begin once again the endless process of erosion. Our time today in Princess Louisa Inlet is full of wonders.
The western red cedars draped lace-like along the edges of the inlet are truly at home in this temperate coastal rainforest, and many of the lower branches are festooned with chartreuse garlands of witch’s hair lichen. We drift in the Zodiacs listening to the heralding call of the kingfisher and marvel at the extensive oyster beds near the shore.
“Mac” Macdonald, the guardian of Princess Louisa Inlet, first experienced this place of magic light and breathtaking scenery in 1919. A prospector who struck it rich in the deserts of Nevada, Mac purchased the land near the falls in 1927, built a log cabin, and spent every summer thereafter welcoming all visitors to his personal Eldorado. These days Princess Louisa Inlet is under the protection of the Canadian provincial park system, and true to Mac’s desires, the area belongs to all of the seagoing travelers of the Pacific Northwest.
White mists moving across the dark sheer granite faces lift, open and illuminate clumps of deep green conifers. Briefly, the yellow face of a big-leaf maple looks out. Following the recent rains, Chatterbox Falls is bursting over her last 120 ft drop and throwing up a huge watery plume from around the rocks at the base of the falls. Perhaps forty streams of water begin their relentless dripping descent thousands of feet above us, falling over the rocky ledges to land in the fiord, travel out to the Pacific Ocean with the tide, evaporate into the clouds and begin once again the endless process of erosion. Our time today in Princess Louisa Inlet is full of wonders.
The western red cedars draped lace-like along the edges of the inlet are truly at home in this temperate coastal rainforest, and many of the lower branches are festooned with chartreuse garlands of witch’s hair lichen. We drift in the Zodiacs listening to the heralding call of the kingfisher and marvel at the extensive oyster beds near the shore.
“Mac” Macdonald, the guardian of Princess Louisa Inlet, first experienced this place of magic light and breathtaking scenery in 1919. A prospector who struck it rich in the deserts of Nevada, Mac purchased the land near the falls in 1927, built a log cabin, and spent every summer thereafter welcoming all visitors to his personal Eldorado. These days Princess Louisa Inlet is under the protection of the Canadian provincial park system, and true to Mac’s desires, the area belongs to all of the seagoing travelers of the Pacific Northwest.
