The Inside Passage
The Pacific coast around here has vast numbers of islands leaving a route between them and the mainland that is sheltered from the open ocean. The Inside Passage runs all the way down from Skagway in Alaska to Vancouver, BC. Along this route run ferries that are the lifeblood of island and coastal communities. We first travelled the route on the BC Ferries route that runs between Prince Rupert and Port Hardy in the north of Vancouver Island. We have also travelled along both the Alaskan and Canadian sections on a cruise from Seward to Vancouver. The pictures on this page are displayed in order from the BC Ferries journey, with the exception of the last picture which was taken from the Alaska cruise.
Abandoned Cannery, Butedale
The weather in western Canada is not exactly ghost town friendly, but there are some still standing. On Princess Royal Island stands (or to be more accurate, crumbles) the ghost town of Butedale. This was once a major salmon cannery that operated 24 x 7 and employed around 500 people. Refrigeration ships made it feasible to do the canning in more accessible locations so in the 1960s Butedale cannery was abandoned. When we visited in 1991 it appeared to be largely intact, but more recent photographs show that some of the buildings have now collapsed.
Graham Reach, Princess Royal Channel
Most of this area is truly wild, but only the occasional sign of human activity. Princess Royal Island, on the right, is the home of rare white ‘Spirit’ or ‘Kermode’ bears. It is unlikely that you will see any bears from the ferry as the seashore has little to attract them.
Vehicles boarding 'Queen of Prince Rupert' Ferry, Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert is a busy place. Alaska Marine Highway ferries leave from here to head north towards Ketchikan and Juneau, the BC Ferries Inside Passage route heads south to Vancouver Island and BC Ferries also runs a service from here out to the Queen Charlotte Islands. While daytime sailings are available in summer arriving at Port Hardy in the late evening, the journeys in winter are overnight. We made the mistake of catching the last daytime sailing of the season to find that the regular ferry was replaced by a slower ferry that had spent the summer season on the Queen Charlotte Islands route. As a result we didn’t get to Vancouver Island until the early hours of the following morning.
Fishing Boat 'Annie II' off Princess Royal Island
Fishing, logging and tourism are the main industries in this remote area. Here one of the many small fishing boats that operate in the area is dwarfed by the adjacent mountains.
Evening light over Bella Bella
Our slow journey down the Inside Passage meant that light was fast fading by the time we called at Bella Bella on Campbell Island. About 1,400 people live in this fishing community which is the home of the Heiltsuk Nation.
Boat Bluff, Sarah Island
At the southern end of Sarah Island stands the Boat Bluff lighthouse and keepers houses. The lighthouse marks a notorious blind corner at the entrance to the narrow Sarah Passage on the Inside Passage route. Unlike most lighthouses, Boat Bluff is still has two keepers who live on site.
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Sunset across the Inside Passage from MS Jubilee
The BC Ferries route finishes at Port Hardy in the north of Vancouver Island. Tragedy struck this route on March 22, 2006 when the Inside Passage ferry ‘Queen of the North’ hit a rock and sank while travelling south from Prince Rupert. Sadly two passengers were never unaccounted for. The ship was well off course and an inquiry concluded that the cause was human error. This picture was taken during our cruise from Seward in Alaska which continued on past Vancouver Island to dock in Vancouver. A picture of the sunset over the Strait of Georgia just south of Campbell River makes a fitting end to our page on the Inside Passage.
© Mike Elsden 1981 - 2023
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