Logbook: Princess Louisa Inlet

One of the cool things about boating in BC is how many of the marine parks are the result of individuals who loved their piece of paradise, wanted it to be experienced by future generations and so donated the land to the province. Princess Louisa Park lands are a result of such a person and also a large group of current day individuals who have donated time and money in an effort to upgrade the park facilities and to buy the adjacent lands. How cool is that?

Only accessible by boat or by float plane, the park has quite a large dock, some maintained trails, outhouses, a park host (in the summer apparently, also there is untreated surface water on the dock in the summer we understand) and a few designated campsites – all intended to facilitate visitors while lightening their impact on the land.

With the exception of a 30 min stop by some nice folks in a float plane, we had the place to ourselves for 4 nights. On the 5th night we were joined by MV Grey Hawk who invited us over and we had a fun time chatting about cruising and land cruising (converted bus) over a few glasses of wine. The registration book had two other entries for earlier in February. As a contrast, there were around 60 entries for October. I imagine (and have heard) it is a zoo here in July. Of course, in July swimming is probably an option and the falls would have been larger.

We arrived just before dark with enough time to take a quick walk to the falls and check out the main park grounds. It was bitterly cold and wet heavy snow was come down in sheets.



We were starting to question our sanity but we woke to clear blue skies, sun, snow topped peaks and the roar of the falls. I spent the first few hours of the day bundled up in our full enclosure watching the fall, the sun lighting up the tops of the mountains as it made its way overhead and drinking hot coffee. We were in a deep valley so it wasn’t until mid-morning that sun reached down to us and the surface warmed up.

This became the pattern of our days there. During the day the temperature would climb, the sun would shine and we would get outdoors to row, to hike, to do boat work or laze about in the sun. Once the sun dipped too low in the horizon we retreated to the boat, except for one night where we used the covered fire pit and had a roaring fire complete with hotdogs and “legally allowed beverages”.