Stuart Island and Roche Harbor, 10/9/2023, National Geographic Venture
Aboard the
National Geographic Venture
Pacific Northwest
We were greeted by a marvelous sunrise this morning as a beautiful golden light climbed over Mount Baker and the Cascade Mountain Range. With a fall squall moving in from the southeast, National Geographic Venture sheltered in a protected cove near Stuart Island, which served as the perfect starting point for hiking and kayaking adventures.
A wonderful view of Turn Point and the boundary between the US and Canada greeted some of our hikers while picturesque trails and Canadian maples with their leaves turning gold framed the houses and farmland of this unique island.
In the afternoon, we returned to San Juan Island and explored the little community of Roche Harbor. This community featured a few surprises, including a garden dedicated to some magnificent sculptures and a mausoleum tucked into the fir and cedar forest behind the town.
Tonight, we pull anchor and cross the border for Victoria, the capital of the British Columbian province.
All it took was four days in the British Columbia wilderness to turn David from a basketball-obsessed 18-year-old into a lifelong kayaker and explorer of wild places. Since that fateful adventure, David has based many of his life choices around getti...
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Today was our final full day aboard National Geographic Venture and it has been a perfect final end to an already exciting, adventurous, and fulfilling experience here in the Pacific Northwest. Throughout this trip we’ve seen so many extraordinary examples of pristine beauty in nature and today continued that trend. As we woke this morning guests were treated to one of the most vibrant sunrises possible, with the sky stretching bright pinks, oranges, and purples. Guests gathered on deck while some joined our wellness specialist, Ann Marie, on our sundeck for a stretch class with the best view available. After breakfast, we split into groups to explore Stuart Island through wooded hikes and breezy Zodiac tours. We continued our adventures this afternoon after repositioning to a nearby marine provincial park, the Sucia Island group. Here we trekked coastal hikes while also exploring on the water via Zodiac tours, kayaking, and paddleboarding. Our evening came to a close with a cocktail hour off the ship, celebrating our trip’s closure around a campfire on Sucia Island’s beach. Throughout this trip our goal each day was to be as open as possible to the world around us, immersing ourselves in the world of First Nations communities, dynamic marine environments, and iconic temperate rainforests. Our hearts are happy, our stomachs are full, and our eyes are already looking forward to more great experiences like this!
As we ghosted towards the harbor entrance in Victoria, BC, the sun seemed to rip a hole in the dark carpet of clouds that was stealing the light from this storied part of North America. The morning dawned cool, and the forecast was for rain, but by the noon-hour we were strolling the streets under blue skies. The temperatures were in the mid-sixties, and it turned out to be a rare October day in B.C.’s capital city on the far-western edge of the world’s largest temperate coastal rainforest! Customs were cleared with very little to-do, and at the civilized hour of 09:00, all were gathered on the dock to head out on our various activities. Some guests were headed to the Royal BC Museum where they were able to explore the region’s art, cultures, and history at a superb level of detail. Those who had signed up for tours of Butchart Gardens and several of the area’s amazing private gardens were treated to lunch on one property where the owner had amassed a considerable collection of automobiles and large-scale trains that spanned the property. Still others went on walking history tours with master recontour, Chris Adams, bicycle tours of the city’s most beautiful outlooks, and food-tasting tours that were far, far above the ordinary! With the opportunity to partake in so many different activities, there was a palpable excitement when guests reunited and shared their experiences of the day aboard busses that swept us off to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria for cocktail hour. And talk about being far above the ordinary, the featured exhibit, Symbiosis, at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, explores the role of fungal communities in forest ecology, and our emerging understanding of communication between the trees! A truly cutting-edge exhibit that blended technology with live mycelium that were actually participating in the making of art! I think it safe to say that none of us had ever seen its like, and it will remain in our memories for a long time to come. Tomorrow we cross back into the U.S. in Friday Harbor, WA, but the events of today have made it hard to leave this most amazing city on the edge of the world. Photos by Jeff Campbell, Sharon Grainger, Alex Rubenstein .
A warm sunrise greeted National Geographic Venture as we traveled south through the Salish Sea. Our destination was the Gulf Islands, a continuation of the San Juan Islands in Washington, except with this pesky little border dividing these two archipelagos that share many geological similarities. Rain came and went periodically as National Geographic Venture dropped anchor off the southwest corner of the island near Conover Cove, an idyllic harbor with shelter from the breeze rumbling up the Strait of Georgia. We weren’t the first guests to visit Wallace Island; it has been home to a variety of characters over the last 100 years, and has been part of the Lummi First Nations territory for many generations before. Over the last thirty years, the island has been set aside by the British Columbian government as a provincial park, complete with a maintained floating dock, numerous hiking trails, and a campsite suitable for kayakers on the north end. We dispersed into several groups to explore the island on foot and by kayak. While the rain came and went, it did little to dampen our spirits beneath the canopy of fir, red cedar, and madrone trees that cover the island. Having a hot shower to return to certainly doesn’t hurt either! In the evening we raised the anchor and continued south toward Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Famed for its gardens and British-inspired architecture, it’s also situated in one of the driest regions of the Pacific Northwest, receiving just a fraction of the rain on mainland Vancouver. Will the rain follow us to the provincial capital? We’ll find out tomorrow.
