Desolation Sound

Desolation Sound is the largest marine park in British Columbia and its distinction is temperature. Tides entering the Strait of Georgia from both ends meet here and largely cancel, so the water is not flushed and exchanged the way it is elsewhere on the coast; the surface layer sits through summer and warms to around twenty-four degrees, the warmest sea water north of Mexico on this coast. Captain Vancouver named it in 1792, finding it gloomy and short of anchorage, which is not the modern verdict. There is no road: kayakers launch from Lund or Okeover and boats come up the strait.

History

The sound lies within the traditional territories of the Klahoose, Tla'amin and Homalco First Nations. In the summer of 1792 two expeditions, one British under George Vancouver and one Spanish under Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores, met here and worked together to chart it, and Vancouver gave it its name, writing that there was not a single prospect that was pleasing to the eye (Wikipedia, Desolation Sound).

The landscape

• The warm water - surface temperatures unusual for the Pacific Northwest.
• The tidal meeting point - where two tide streams cancel each other.
• The boat-access coves - anchorages and campsites with no road behind them.
• The Coast Mountains - peaks rising directly behind the inlets.

When to go

June to September, when the surface layer has warmed and services run; the water is at its warmest in August. Winter is stormy and the park is effectively empty.

Practical notes

Access is by water only and kayak crossings involve exposed stretches with wind. Anchorages fill in August. There are no supplies inside the park.

Nearby

Lund is the road end and launching point; Powell River lies south.

Key facts