Let me introduce you to a little slice of Canada known as “the Discovery Islands.” It’s a very cool name for a very cool place. I’ve already decided that when I own a big beautiful house filled with maps one day, I want a topographical relief map of these islands mounted on a wall somewhere. It’s one of the most picturesque and unspoiled places I have ever been.

In this and the next article, we’ll be discovering …(eh?)… the Discovery Islands in different capacities. Today, we’re going to be catching ferries from where we stayed in Campbell River to two islands in particular: Quadra Island and Cortes Island.

Quadra Island

Looking out across the water from the Campbell River harbor, it is not a long way across. Campbell River sits on one side of a very narrow channel of water. The land on the other side of this waterway is Quadra Island. And the snow-capped mountains you’ll see in the distance are actually mainland Canada! Those mountains probably would be in the same general area as Whistler. By boat, we’re a couple of hours away from the mainland, so that should give you an idea of just how big those mountains are.

One very cool detail about life in Campbell River is that just about everybody has an app on their phones called MarineTraffic so they can get information on the ships that pass through this waterway. There are boats passing by all the time, which are naturally the subject of some curiosity. But, there is one type of vessel in particular that people really seem to enjoy watching: cruise ships. You see, when cruise ships go up or down the coast to or from Alaska, they come through this little channel. During the “season,” there are often 2 or 3 massive ships that come through here within a 24-hour period. People in Campbell River use this app to gauge an approximate ETA, and then they get to watch these gentle giants pass by. This often happens in the middle of the night, so houses with an ocean view (like the place we stayed) get to see these floating cities passing by silently each night from their windows. The ethereal glow of these ships looks like something out of a Miyazaki movie under the bright starry night skies. This must be just the coolest thing ever to children growing up here.

Honestly, I still open this app and click around from time to time. The maritime world never sleeps. Sometimes when I am feeling anxious, it’s nice to see these boats sitting quietly out here. Whether its a small fishing vessel heading past Campbell River back to Steveston in the middle of the night or a cargo ship flying a Panamanian flag in international waters, it weirdly comforts me to think about the human beings on these boats looking out at the sea, feeling the same things as me.

So—ANYWAY—boats are a big part of the culture out here. We’re going to have a lot of interactions with boats over the course of this article. On the map below, you’ll see where Quadra Island is in relation to Campbell River.

The ferry ride that connects Campbell River to Quadra Island is about a 10-minute ride dock-to-dock. It arrives in Quadra Island at a place called Quathiaski Cove. Quadra is shaped kind of like a big drumstick (chicken, not percussion), and all of the civilization on the island is on the small/bottom side of that drumstick. People really do live here! And with how easy it is to get to Campbell River, it’s not hard to see the appeal. For the most part, even in its more developed areas, Quadra basically feels like wilderness. Off of the main road, there are some neighborhood-y residential streets, a small strip mall, a gas station, and a few other odds and ends—but after that, this island mostly feels like a bunch of cabins in the woods.

Quadra is a big place, so I’m sure there are cool things tucked away that we just didn’t see. But I wanted to make sure that we got a reasonably good taste of this island while we were here, so—for starters—we drove to the southern-most point on the island (the bone of the drumstick) to visit the Cape Mudge Lighthouse, which we had seen across the water from Campbell River. This lighthouse turned out not to be accessible to the public, but it did sit on an interesting beach. We walked amongst the driftwood and stones for a little way and saw what turned out to be a little seal floating just offshore with just his nose and one flipper sticking out of the water. This part of Quadra is actually First Nations land, so the lighthouse sits directly adjacent to a small First Nations town called Yaculta.

By this point, we had passed through a number of First Nations towns, so I was starting to get a feel for them. Generally, they felt comparatively depressed from an economic perspective. I don’t recall ever seeing any sort of explicit rule about this written down, but my spidey sense told me that it would likely be inappropriate for me to be randomly taking pictures of these places. So I have no visual aid to share here, but I do think it’s important to remember that large swaths of this land are still governed by First Nations peoples.

So we did the bottom of the island/drumstick. Before we moved on, I wanted to drive as far north as we had time for. Up north is where the true wilderness lies. There are some long-distance hikes you can do up here, but we didn’t have time for that. We drove northward down a randomly selected road and sure enough, the pavement ended and we found ourselves on dirt roads in the middle of a dense, northerly forest.

These islands are the kind of places that I look at on the map and think “…what are these roads? Where do they go? What does it look like?” Remember the Gulf Islands, which we passed through on our initial crossing from Vancouver to Victoria? To look at them on the map, I never would have guessed that anybody actually lived on those islands, but sure enough, each of them was studded with rustic-looking houses. Well, I got to find out firsthand on Quadra Island what it looks like out here.

It was pretty much just a lot of trees.

We came to a clearing at a small lake and stopped to walk around. It was pretty much total silence out here, except for the wind and the gentle ambiance of the forest. There was a bald eagle sitting in the shallows of the lake off in the distance. Then we followed another road all the way to the coast of the island and found a small fishery deep in the woods, 45 minutes from anything. Here are some pictures from our wanderings.

On our way back from this fishery, we saw—I believe for the first time—a car other than our own out on these dirt roads. It was a pickup truck, and it appeared to be broken down because there were people standing outside the vehicle looking lost. We slowed to a stop and asked if they needed any help and they asked if we could give them a ride back to the Campbell River ferry terminal. I had intended to keep exploring out here, but this pretty much killed that plan. I mean, we couldn’t just leave them on the roadside! What this place lacks in cell service, it makes up for in bears.

Our passengers were a mother and her adult son who lived in Campbell River. The mother actually lived on a boat in the harbor shown in the previous article and had a business renting out a fleet of trailers to seasonal workers around Vancouver Island. She was currently in the middle of moving her trailers to the fishery we had just visited to serve as temporary housing for a bunch of fishermen for the next 6 months. Those trailers have got to be disgusting by the time they she gets back to them 🐟💩🤢 but it’s cool that she’s running a successful small business out here.

Cortes Island

Next up, we’re making the voyage over to Cortes Island. Unless you plan on flying a bush plane out here (which is not uncommon), this is probably 3 ferries, 3 drives, and a collective 6 hours away from Vancouver at this point. Actually, I think there is a tiny airport somewhere in Campbell River—but the point is, Cortes Island is remote!

Quadra’s ferry terminal for Cortes Island is in a place called Heriot Bay. When we got there, we found a line of cars parked in the road waiting for the ferry. People were out of their cars, biding their time until the ferry arrived, so we followed suit and walked around the area a bit. This was turning out to be a low-key perk to BC’s anti-idling laws—everybody walks around when they are waiting for ferries! It’s nice. For starters, there were 2 ADORABLE puppies in the back of the pickup truck at the front of this line. You’re welcome for the pics. But there was also a lovely area little inn close to the ferry terminal with a cool restaurant. We ended up eating dinner there on our way back.

Finally, the ferry arrived and we drove aboard. It was going to be a 45-minute ride across the water to Cortes. Please appreciate the picture below where I caught the man’s reflection in the glass pane on the right. I thought that was cool.

It was a scenic voyage. We spent the vast majority of it above deck just watching the water and clouds swirl around us. By this point there were literally snowcapped mountains visible in every direction, from Vancouver Island and mainland Canada. It was all pretty unreal and yet, somehow, I was getting accustomed to it. Here are some snaps from the crossing.

Pause. At this point, I think I should tell you that the logistics of this day were actually really tricky because we had to coordinate everything around ferry schedules. Getting all the way over to Cortes Island was even worse because there are not that many ferries that make the crossing from Quadra to Cortes each day. These are MUCH smaller ferries than the ones we took between Vancouver, Victoria, and Nanaimo. And they don’t take reservations either—it’s first-come-first-serve. So if there is a long queue of cars waiting when you roll up to the dock, there is a chance you might not be able to get on the ferry. The last ferry BACK from Cortes was slated to leave at like ~5:30pm or something like that… but what if there were a lot of cars trying to go back at that time and we got stuck? There aren’t hotels on this island. If we got stuck here, unless somebody took us in, we’d be sleeping in the woods in our car. No thank you. So we figured that we should play it safe and aim to return on the 2nd-to-last ferry of the day. Unfortunately, by the time we actually arrived on the island… that gave us like ~2 hours.

2 F*CKING HOURS.

And it was not long after drove off the ferry that my adrenaline started to kick in. Cortes Island is perfect. I am not speaking figuratively. Literally perfect. Every little detail of this island was so effortlessly interesting, unique, and authentic… I don’t know that I have ever seen a place quite like it. It felt like I was living in a chapter of a book. It was like the entire place was straight out of a Wes Anderson movie. Think Moonrise Kingdom, but on an island off the coast of British Columbia, and mostly populated by adults. I could make a cool Pacific-Northwest-meets-Martha’s-Vineyard Pinterest board inspired by this place. Every property was tastefully weathered and clearly maintained with a personal, practical touch. There were no houses that screamed “VACATION RENTAL” here. Every single one of them looked like they were the active, primary residence of an eccentric gardener.

What a mistake to have given ourselves such a short time here! I was speed walking with my camera, trying to drink as much of this place as I possibly could. Ironically, this frenzied state was completely misaligned with the slow, peaceful energy of Cortes. I knew it, and I didn’t care. I was jazzed! It’s a rare feeling to love a place so completely, so instantaneously. Here are some pictures from the first road I walked down.

20 or 30 minutes down the road is an area called Manson’s Landing. As you’ll see from the pictures below, we arrived here at low tide, which meant that the shallow inlet that defines this piece of geography was totally drained of water. It was actually more interesting this way, I think. We did a lap around the narrow, beachy peninsula (or, it would have been a peninsula at high tide) and admired the colorful boats docked along the coastline, as well as the many picturesque cabins looking down at the bay. We actually found one of these cabins on Airbnb and let me tell you… coming back and actually staying on this island sounds goddamn magical.

Alongside this beach, a bush plane flew in circles, practicing its water landings. In all directions, endless pine trees, clouds, water, and mountains stretched off into the distance. It’s an incredible setting, but the real beauty of Cortes was in the details. One picture that embodies this really well is the sea shells that were painted orange and blue that we randomly found sitting on a log. These sorts of details were commonplace, through every nook and cranny of Cortes that we saw. It really encouraged you to slow down and be a kid again. Remember when we all used to spend a lot of time just looking at the grass? Simpler times.

But I was still racing the clock! Our ferry was leaving in T-minus 50 minutes. ⏱

The last place on Cortes that I was to show you is the Cortes Co-Op & Community Garden. As you may recall from our time in Victoria, I LOVE a good community garden. But I actually don’t think I have ever written about a co-op before on this website. Do you know what that is?

In this context, a co-op is basically a grocery store. Except that it’s not owned by a corporate chain in any capacity. It is completely co-owned and co-operated by the local community. So instead of worrying about the needs of investors or other corporate stakeholders, co-ops are focused solely on the communities they serve. They know the local farmers and business owners personally and therefore have the ability to serve locally sourced, unprocessed, non-GMO delicious food, tailored to the budgets and cooking styles of their constituents. In the massive food desert known as North America, these places are oases. Unsurprisingly, you’ll find a lot more of these in organizations like Oregon and Vermont than… *ahem* …in some other places, but wherever they are, they tend to be AWESOME. And Cortes was no exception. I would love to shop at this grocery store every week.

Across the street from the co-op and community garden sits the Manson’s Landing Community Hall, which apparently doubles as a community center and a movie theatre. How cool is that? It gets you thinking, how many people actually live on this island full-time? The thought had not really crossed my mind until I got to the community center and it became apparent that there actually is a community that lives here. In fact, the Campbell River School District actively operates the Cortes Elementary and Jr. Secondary schools here. The latter of those is the Canadian equivalent of middle school, which goes as high as the 9th grade. After that, kids growing up on Cortes island have to go to school off the island or switch to homeschooling. And we did see some kids wandering around the community center. How cool would it be to grow up on Cortes? That has got to be the most idyllic childhood.

Next to the co-op, we had a short conversation with a woman tending to the garden who lives here on Cortes. She said that she loved it here but—and I only say this because I feel like I’ve got to put something in the Cortes “cons” column—she also said it’s not the easiest place to make a living because it’s so isolated. But… I mean… like… that has got to be less and less true. In the age of remote work, anybody could just move here! There’s wifi on the island—what else do you need??

Anyway, here are some photographs from this lovely area.

Eventually, we had to RACE back to the ferry terminal. And you know what? Once we got there and saw the small queue of cars, we realized that there was, in fact, zero danger of us not making it onto this ferry. There are not that many people on Cortes. Next time, learn from my mistakes. Roll the dice and take an extra couple of hours on the island!

I do think that something about the compressed timeframe of this visit made it all the more idyllic. Because, even now, although I logically understand that no place can be perfect… I’m pretty sure Cortes is perfect. It is everything you could hope for in an island like this, and I very much plan to come back here one day. Eventually. Who knows when that will be… but, dammit, I’ve got to!

When we finally made the short crossing back from Quadra to Campbell River, the lighting was pretty great. I took a few pictures that I love looking from the ferry on Quadra back across the water towards Campbell River. Remember those massive snow-capped mountains in the cover image for this article? THOSE are the mountains on Vancouver Island. On the other side of those, it’s a few miles of Avatar Grove-style rainforests and then open ocean.

This place has some magic to it. I did my best to give you a taste of that magic in this article, but I’m not sure that I succeeded. It’s hard to fully re-create these worlds because they are just so complex, immersive, and alien. It’s hard to tell how much of this information will make it out the other side of this article, into your brain, as it was intended. So, like always, if you want to be transported, you’ll need to use some imagination.

I’ve been back on my bullshit in the U.S. for many months now since this beautiful day in the Discovery Islands. But I think about this place often. Usually, while I am looking reflectively out the window, in the rain. Just kidding. But I do daydream about Cortes.

To finish—and I can’t believe I found a song that feels so fitting—please enjoy, “Canadee-I-O.” 🍁⚓️