British Columbia Hidden Gems

British Columbia's Wine Islands

Vancouver Island and the Southern Gulf Islands, gifted with a Mediterranean climate and enthusiastic winemakers, are emerging as one of North America's latest and quickest growing wine destinations. Visitors can stop in at any of 17 wineries in the area, as well as a traditional cidery and a fruit winery. Quite a few cheese-makers, organic farmers and farmers' markets also welcome visitors. Local chefs are in on this food resurgence too, serving the best of the islands' seafood, produce and wine in scenically-sited restaurants. The majority of the vineyards are in the Cowichan Valley, 45 minutes north of Victoria, with several on the nearby Saanich Peninsula and three more a short ferry trip away on Saturna and Salt Spring Islands.

Wine Islands Vintners Association: www.islandwineries.ca

British Columbia's Pocket Desert

Tucked into the southernmost tip of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, this astonishing habitat, Canada's only desert, is among the most delicate and endangered ecosystems in North America. With more than 100 rare plants and over 300 rare invertebrates it hosts one of Canada's largest concentrations of species at risk and is of international importance.

Osoyoos Desert Centre: www.desert.org


Canada's Best Little Arts Town

With its beautiful lake and mountain setting, arts college, and well-preserved 19th century architecture, the city of Nelson, well off the beaten track in southeastern BC, has become a magnet for artists, writers, and filmmakers. This lakeside spot is so rich with galleries, festivals, and cultural life it's been named, by John Villani in his book The 100 Best Small Arts Towns in America, as one Canada's leading arts towns. Nature plays a role here too: the adjacent landscape, of snowy peaks, lakes, hot springs, and pristine but accessible parkland, is among the most striking and artistically inspiring in the province.

Nelson & District Chamber of Commerce: www.discovernelson.com

The Gulf Islands National Park Reserve

The Southern Gulf Islands, a tranquil sprinkling of wild and rural, inhabited and uninhabited islands rest in British Columbia's Strait of Georgia between the cities of Vancouver and Victoria. Blessed with rustic landscape of woodlands and meadows, coastal bluffs and white shell beaches, the archipelago is home to a treasure of wildlife, including eagles, falcons, deer, and shorebirds; porpoises, orcas, sea lions, seals and otters flourish offshore. A small population of organic farmers, artists, and retirees work hard to protect the islands' rare environment and way of life, despite their proximity to British Columbia's two major cities.
The Gulf Islands National Park Reserve of Canada, established on May 9, 2003, protects 35 square kilometers of land spread over 15 islands and approximately 60 islets and reefs south of Active Pass, as well as 26 square km of neighboring waters. Parts of the park are only reachable to boaters, but park areas on Mayne, Saturna, and the Pender Islands can be a reached by car, ferry and road. A seasonal foot ferry from Sidney British Columbia takes visitors to the Sidney Spit section of the park.

Parks Canada: http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/gulf/index_E.asp

The Emerald Sea

Canada might not be the first place you think of for a scuba diving holiday, but members of the diving community, including readers of Rodale's Scuba Diving and even the late Jacques Cousteau, have regularly ranked British Columbia’s waters, known as the Emerald Sea, amongst the top dive sites on the globe.

British Columbia’s ocean life is vibrant and abundant year round, but local divers agree that winter is best. That's when the view-obscuring plankton dies off and visibility can reach 150 feet, with water clarity rivaling that of the most popular Caribbean dive sites.

Top BC dive sites include the waters off Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, where three artificial reefs have been sunk; the Rivtow Lion, which was successfully sunk on Sunday February 6, 2005 in Departure Bay; God's Pocket Provincial Park, near Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, where the underwater landscape amazed M. Cousteau; and the Sunshine Coast's Saltery Bay Provincial Park, home to the Emerald Princess, Canada's first underwater statue.

The Serengeti of the North

In Northern British Columbia, the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area encompasses some 6.4 million hectares of wilderness. The region, north of Prince George, northwest of Fort St. John and extending to the Yukon Border, covers an area approximately the size of Ireland.

This impressive landscape of glacier-draped peaks, alpine valleys and major wetlands, is so rich in wildlife it's been dubbed The Serengeti of the North. Home to Grizzly and black bear, Stone's sheep, lynx, bison, mountain goat, elk, caribou, moose, mule and white-tailed deer, it remains one of the best places on earth to see wildlife in its natural environment.


The Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve

Home to five million species of animals, plants, and insects, including some of the world's largest and oldest trees, the west coast of Vancouver Island has been acknowledged as one of the most biologically varied regions on earth.

In January 2000, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization designated Vancouver Island's Clayoquot Sound as a World Biosphere Reserve.

The 350,000 hectare reserve include ancient temperate rainforests, long sandy beaches, lakes, rivers and streams, mountain peaks, rocky shores, coastal mudflats and estuaries, each with its rich population of vegetation and fauna. The Long Beach Unit of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and the town of Tofino, as well as sixteen provincial parks and ecological reserves, are all within the reserve.

The Clayoquot Biosphere Trust: www.clayoquotbiosphere.org

Telegraph Cove
Less than 30 minutes south of Port McNeill at the north end of Vancouver Island lies the isolated village of Telegraph Cove with total population 20. Founded around a telegraph station, sawmill and chum salmon saltery, Telegraph Cove is most famous for its fantastic fishing, kayaking and easy access to nature and wildlife: as many as 200 orcas swim these shores every summer to feast on the ample salmon in the Johnstone Strait. There’s even an all-whale radio station nearby.

British Columbia Hidden Gems

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