Vancouver Island lies off southwestern mainland British Columbia, Canada. With an area of 12,079 square miles, it is the largest island on the Pacific coast of North America.
Vancouver Island is separated from mainland Canada by the straits of Georgia, Johnstone, and Queen Charlotte and from the United States by Juan de Fuca Strait.
The island, averaging 50 miles in width and extending for 285 miles along a northwest–southeast axis paralleling the mainland, is actually the top of a partially submerged mountain system. It has a deeply dissected, heavily wooded, mountainous interior with several peaks of more than 7,000 feet. Flanked on the east by a coastal plain, its coastline, especially on the west, is deeply indented with fjords.
Strathcona Provincial Park occupies 847 square miles in the central part of the island, while Pacific Rim National Park (193 square miles [500 square km]) is in three sections along the west coast, and Cape Scott Provincial Park (58 square miles is at its northwestern tip.
First discovered by Captain James Cook (1778), the island was surveyed in 1792 by George Vancouver and was held by the Hudson’s Bay Company until it was made a British crown colony in 1849. In 1866 it was united with the mainland colony of British Columbia, which entered (in 1871) the Dominion of Canada as a province, with Victoria, the island’s chief city, as the provincial capital. The island’s main industries include lumbering, fishing, mining, agriculture, and tourism.
In 2001, we moved to Victoria for work and so I could complete my PADI Scuba Instructors Certification in preparation of building our small Eco Resort in Belize and relocated back to the island in early 2007, where we purchased a small home in Fernwood and lived until 2013.
The island is a wonderful place to live and explore but seven years was our limit and we wanted to see and live in other places.
This post features some of my favourite photographs from our time on the island.
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