Haida Gwaii

Why go to the airport two hours early when one can spend it on a rocky beach? The Onward Point trail on Moresby Island was the entrance to this temperate rain forest of red cedars sitka spruce and western hemlock. The bald eagles sent out their alerts. We were accustomed to this. We heard them all weekend, as we were alone again in Haida Gwaii. The trail ended at a gazebo with a nice whale-viewing platform. There were no whales. But perhaps whales don’t know about viewing platforms. A giant salmon leaped out of the water, and my husband was lucky to see it. The volcanic rock on the beach, black basalt, smoothed by centuries of waves, called us down to the shore. One doesn’t worry about return flights home or grabbing a lunch before a flight when grey whales are migrating to Alaska, stopping to feed in the nutrient-rich waters. We needed only to turn the bend, climb over the rocky cliffs, to see if the whales might be on the other side. They were, and there were many, their hot puffs…