On shore, the world’s largest intact coastal temperate rainforest provides habitat for grizzly bears, black bears, coastal grey wolves, Sitka deer, cougars, mountain goats and bald eagles, among thousands of other species of animals, birds and plants. Ancient trees dominate the lush landscape. Thousand-year-old cedars draped in lichen mingle with moss-covered 90-metre-tall Sitka spruce. In 2016, the provincial government officially recognized 6.4 million hectares along this route, an area the size of Ireland, as the Great Bear Rainforest, an act that permanently protects 85 per cent of the old-growth trees from industrial logging.

Not only is life plentiful, but it is also unique. In Johnstone Strait, orcas weighing up to six tonnes delight kayakers by breaching — launching their bodies out of the water, their white undersides flashing in the sun. A well-established population of more than 300 orcas ply these waters for salmon, preferably chinook.