Bowen Island

Bowen sits in Howe Sound twenty minutes from Horseshoe Bay, and from 1920 the Union Steamship Company ran it as a resort: cottages, a dance hall and picnic grounds served by steamers bringing Vancouver crowds for the day, a trade that ran until the 1950s. Some of the cottages survive around Snug Cove as shops and a museum. The island is about fifty square kilometres, mostly forest, with Killarney Lake a flat hour's loop from the ferry and Mount Gardner a longer climb of around seven hundred and fifty metres. Most visitors walk off the ferry rather than bring a car, which is the sensible approach.

History

The Squamish used the island for hunting and gathering, camping at places such as Snug Cove, and the Spanish captain José María Narváez named it Isla de Apodaca in July 1791 before Captain George Henry Richards renamed it in 1860 after Rear Admiral James Bowen. Homesteaders and a brickworks supplying Vancouver followed from 1871, and in the first half of the 20th century the island was dominated by a resort run by the Terminal Steamship Company and then, from 1920 to 1962, the Union Steamship Company, with the ferry from Horseshoe Bay beginning in 1921 (Wikipedia, Bowen Island).

The main sights

• Snug Cove - the ferry village with surviving Union Steamship cottages.
• Killarney Lake - a flat loop walk within an hour of the dock.
• Mount Gardner - a forested climb to a view over Howe Sound.
• The resort history - a museum on the steamship-era day-trip trade.

When to go

May to September; the island is quiet in winter with reduced services. Summer weekend ferries fill with vehicles, so walking on is faster. The last sailing back is early, so check it.

Practical notes

Vehicle queues at Horseshoe Bay can mean missed sailings in summer. Services on the island are concentrated at Snug Cove and thin elsewhere. The last ferry is earlier than people expect.

Nearby

Horseshoe Bay is the mainland terminal; the Sea to Sky Highway runs north from there.

Key facts