Had a decent sleep and started the day fresh and ready to explore the island.

Had tea and biscuits with the Hayley’s friend (the one who lent her property to us to stay in). The perfect posing pooch.

We had a quick tour of the island from top to toe. A beautiful island populated by forests and forests, and more forests. Quiet and untouched by sound or light pollution.

We then took a afternoon stroll through the Alert Bay Ecological Park.

There is a feature called the Big Tree Interpretive Trail. The forested section of Alert Bay Ecological Park features three woodland trails, one of them a marked and signed route known as the Big Tree Interpretive Trail. The route travels through a second-growth forest of hemlock and Sitka spruce.

This fascinating piece of terrain borders a dense, sun-dappled forest with an open marsh area. A combination of marked hiking trails and a boardwalk make both areas easy to explore.

The marsh within the Park is locally referred to as “gator gardens” because the dead trees and swampy bottomland remind some of the Florida Everglades.

We took a quick walk up to the island airstrip. A popular spot for people to walk their dogs and stretch their legs.

Another stop was the U’mista Cultural Centre. One of the objectives of the Society was the development of a facility to carry out the aims of the society. The present facility was opened in November of 1980. The focus of the permanent collection is the “Potlatch Collection”.

Potlatch

Potlatch, which means “to give” or “a gift” in the Chinook Jargon, became adapted to refer to “the different ceremonies among [the] many nations of the Pacific Northwest that … [includes] feasting, dancing and giving gifts to all in attendance”.

It is also described somewhat more completely by The Story of the Masks website from the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay as “The potlatch refers to the ceremony where families gather and names are given, births are announced, marriages are conducted, and where families mourn the loss of a loved one.

The potlatch is also the ceremony where a chief will pass on his rights and privileges to his eldest son.”

The next stop was to the tallest totem pole in the world. At 173 feet tall, the wooden tribal totem in Alert Bay, British Columbia is demonstrably the tallest tower of its kind in the entire world.

The totem pole was built from two sections, one 163 feet tall and the other 10 feet.

While most totem poles represent a single family, this one is meant to represent different factions of the Kwakwaka’wakw people. The figures include the Sun Man, a whale, an old man, a wolf, the Thunderbird and its cousin, the Kulusł, a two-headed serpent, a bear holding a salmon, and a raven holding copper.