Ok ya’ll. It’s time for you to get your hopes up because THIS IS THE ARTICLE that I came to British Columbia to write.
The first stages of planning a trip are always exciting because the world is literally your oyster. At one point I was going to do Portugal instead of British Columbia. I’m sure I’ll get to Portugal eventually, but when I made the switch, a guiding force was my desire to see an entirely new climate and natural environment. The temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest had always intrigued me but in spite of my previous visits to Oregon and Washington, I had never actually experienced this environment before. But the idea of a forest on the scale of the California Redwoods completely covered in moss and shrouded in mist… it really sparks the imagination, right?
We are going to see forests like this today. And while I must disclose that these trees aren’t actually as tall as the Redwoods, they really are similar in scale. We’re going to visit two “old-growth” forest areas on Vancouver Island: Cathedral Grove and Avatar Grove.
Cathedral Grove
I’d like to finish this article with Avatar Grove because I thought it was the cooler of the two. So we’re going to jump forward in time and start with Cathedral Grove. Even though you know my bias now, I should tell you that these two regions feel quite different. So this is not exactly an “apples-to-apples” comparison. You’ll see the difference firsthand in the photo galleries that are to come.
First, here’s a map to show you where Cathedral Grove is located on Vancouver Island. This is actually a few hours north of Port Renfrew, so we hit this place on our voyage north toward our next destination. (*hint*)
Also known as MacMillan Provincial Park, Cathedral Grove contains some of the oldest trees in Canada. Some of them are more than 800 years old, which means that they were here before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. I did not know this during the time of my visit, but near this place, there are actually ancient Western Red Cedar trees that date back to 1137 AD.❗️
Anyway, given the significance of this enclave, I was a bit surprised to find that the road literally cuts straight through the middle of this place. There is no hike to get here. As soon as your feet leave the pavement of the road, you are in Cathedral Grove. Even if it is a bit Eurocentric, the majesty of these trees definitely justifies the name; this feels like a cathedral to nature and the spirit of British Columbia… which makes the placement of this road feel borderline sacrilegious. Like, what the hell. 🤯
It’s frustrating because these trees really are just INCREDIBLE. Standing at 75+ meters (250+ feet) tall and 9+ meters (29+ feet) around, these trees are just the survivors of an ancient ecosystem of Douglas Fir trees that once dominated Vancouver Island. There are also Grand Firs, Western Hemlocks, and Western Red Cedar trees as well, all of which held deep spiritual meaning to the original inhabitants of this area. The K’ómoks, Tseshaht, and Te’mexw peoples had served as stewards of this land for thousands of years before European settlers showed up. Early European conquest here starting in 1849 saw the advent of massive deforestation, but the gravity of this particular grove of trees was apparently enough to earn it protected status as a tourist destination as early as 1920.
In the 1990s, there was an intense wind storm that downed some of these trees, so Cathedral Grove is not quite as dense as it once was, but it’s a magical place all the same. Here are some pictures of our hike through this place. You will see all the giant trees that came down in that windstorm laying horizontal in these photos.
Avatar Grove
Yep, Cathedral Grove is pretty darn cool. But the craziest thing about it—to me—is that 1,000 years ago, trees on this scale filled the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Vancouver Island used to be COVERED in these giant trees.
To get a (slightly) better feel for how this place used to look, you can drive a few hours south, back towards Port Renfrew and Vancouver Island’s wild, undeveloped Pacific coast, to a place called Avatar Grove. The original Avatar movie came out in 2009, and this area was named after it because—as you will see—it is very reminiscent of the film, and the conservationists involved figured that the name recognition would help them in their quest to preserve this place. I think it’s safe to say that their evil plan worked, but I have heard that others in the Forestry community actually questioned why this place was worth preserving, calling it a “rat’s nest” of a forest.
As you will see, it is a bit of a tangled, gnarled mess, and perhaps not the most perfect specimen from a ✨Forestry✨ perspective—(whatever)—But for the rest of us civilians, this place is SO. GOD. DAMN. COOL. Here it is on the map.
Part of what makes Avatar Grove so cool is its remote location. You really have to drive through the middle of nowhere to get here. It’s only accessible via deactivated logging roads, which are unmaintained, gravel paths that snake their way through the wilderness for untold hundreds of miles. I’ve heard of people needing to move fallen trees from the road in order to get in and out of this place. Here are some photographs from the journey out here, including one of a rotting, single-lane wooden bridge that we had to cross in our rental car. I held my breath as we drove over that thing. 🫣
Like Cathedral Grove, this little road takes you right through the middle of Avatar Grove. 🙄 The trailheads are easy to miss, but the cars parked in the middle of nowhere were a dead giveaway. Vancouver Island is quite mountainous and Avatar Grove sits on the slopes of one of those mountains. It is hence divided between “Lower” and “Upper” Avatar Grove.
Lower Avatar Grove
We’ll start with the lower section. As soon as I shimmied down the wet stairs leading from the road to the trail, I felt an audible stillness engulf me. I looked up to find myself in the most incredible forest I had ever seen. I’ve received feedback that I am sometimes overly liberal with the use of hyperbole in my writing, so let me say for the record that this truly is the #1 most incredible forest I have ever seen. And I think most of #2-10 would all be in British Columbia as well.
Avatar Grove is well-named; it really does feel like something out of Avatar. Or maybe Jurassic Park. It is a tangled, mossy labyrinth of ancient, knotted trees rising out of an infinite carpet of prehistoric-looking ferns. Each tree branch is draped with moss, similar to the way Spanish Moss hangs from every tree in Savannah—but in a green, lush, distinctly Pacific Northwest kind of way. Every little detail of this place was fascinating and photogenic. From the mossy, leafy forest floor, to the canopy high above our heads, every inch felt like its own world. Here are some pictures from our hike through this enchanted forest.
Pretty cool, right?
To throw yet another movie reference at you, it reminded me somewhat of Fangorn Forest in Lord of the Rings. I was half expecting one of these trees to get up and start walking around.
The original First Nations inhabitants of these lands are often referenced as “stewards” of this place, which I think captures the appropriate level of respect and responsibility. These trees and the ecosystem they support feel deserving of reverence. Standing here in the stillness, these trees feel like a spiritual, protective presence. Maybe I sound like a hippie—but I challenge you to spend a few minutes sitting here in silent observation and tell me you don’t agree. There is something larger than life amongst these trees. I would love to go back thousands of years and walk through the old-growth forests of British Columbia as they once were. This must have been like a chilly, mossy Garden of Eden.
During my wanderings, I took a couple of voice memos on my phone to capture the ambiance of this place. These will serve as a good soundtrack for our walk back up the hill to UPPER Avatar Grove.
Upper Avatar Grove
Across the logging road that bisects this area of forest, is the upper portion of Avatar Grove.
From what I saw, I think the average age of the trees in Upper Avatar Grove was higher than that of Lower Avatar Grove. There were lots of MASSIVE trees up here. Between them, there was an intense war for real estate happening at the subterranean level. The gnarled roots of these ancient trees look as if a slithering, writhing, struggling mass of wooden tentacles was frozen, locked in time. The upper half is a much steeper hike, requiring the use of wooden staircases throughout the ascent. However, there are also steep sections where these roots come together naturally to form staircases.
One of the many reasons why trees and plants are so critical to the health of this planet is that they suck up carbon from the atmosphere and replace it with oxygen. This is why large forests are sometimes referred to as “the lungs of the earth.” They do a lot of work to purify the atmosphere and provide us with clean air to breathe. As I have shared earlier in this series, I had been dealing with some difficult anxiety issues in the months leading up to this trip. Much of my anxiety was (and still is) health-related, and since catching COVID in late 2021, my breathing had been a major area of focus and angst. As we walked through this forest, we mused that this has got to be some of the cleanest air in the world. Each breath felt smooth and pure out here in the cool, damp forest air. This trip did wonders for my mental health, and I think the healing properties of nature had a lot to do with it. British Columbia is a great place to recharge.
The path through Upper Avatar Grove ends at a particularly knotted tree with a wooden sign labeled “CANADA’S GNARLIEST TREE.” I doubt that is a particularly scientific designation… but as you’ll see in the photo gallery below, it’s pretty darn gnarly.
Ok, at a couple of points in this article, I have compared the Douglas Fir trees in British Columbia to the California Redwoods. Now that you have seen some of the magic of this ecosystem, I want to circle back.
On this trip, I learned that Douglas Fir trees may actually be the tallest trees on this planet. Although the California Redwoods get most of the credit in this department, there were actually documented Douglas Fir trees that were larger than the Redwoods are today from less than 100 years ago! These ancient behemoths dominated the forests from Oregon to British Columbia for many thousands of years, and would still be sitting peacefully in the same place they had always been… if it wasn’t for logging by European settlers. When these first Europeans arrived on Vancouver Island and saw these gentle giants, although they were probably awe-struck at first, ultimately they would destroy this beautiful place to capitalize on these resources. Today, old-growth forests cover less than 4% of the area they had on Vancouver Island when logging began ~150 years ago.
After seeing these old-growth areas with my own eyes, I cannot believe that anybody could have brought themselves to cut these trees down. I really struggle to wrap my mind around it. This place must have been positively magical. It makes me ache to think about all that was lost in this place. How could we have done this?
I ask that question in the past tense, but it’s actually still going on. Logging is still a major industry on Vancouver Island. In fact, the only way we were able to access Avatar Grove at all was via a logging road. Along the way, we drove by a number of areas deep in the wilderness that had been 100% clear-cut. Here are some pictures from the road up to Avatar Grove. In fact, when we first came up here, we overshot Avatar Grove and stumbled upon another local tourist attraction: “Lonely Doug.” It’s an area that has been totally clear-cut save for one towering Douglas Fir that stands alone on the hillside. It was actually a really sad sight to behold.
In fairness, I’m told that, unlike the U.S., Canada actually has some solid environmental regulations in place to ensure that this industry operates sustainably. As I understand it, the government grants loggers permits to operate in very specific pieces of the forest and rotates which areas can be logged so as not to clear-cut entire ecosystems. It is also required that trees be re-planted after an area has been logged to ensure the longevity and renewal of these forests. The vast majority of Vancouver Island is forest, but if you spend a few hours driving around out here, it’s not hard to tell that damn near ALL of it has been logged at some point in time. You can tell how recently different pieces of the forest have been logged based on the size of the trees. When a stretch of huge, old trees gives way to a dense area of small, young trees… that’s new growth after logging. It’s good to see new growth, but I couldn’t shake a potent feeling of sadness for what had been lost.
When I got home, I found a reality show on Netflix called “Big Timber” that follows Victoria-based loggers who operate in this exact area. I watched it. It definitely satiated my nostalgia for British Columbia (this show has got gorgeous scenery), but what I was really looking for was a better understanding of how this industry works. It was an enjoyable show with likeable people, and it definitely gave the impression that the Canadian government is running a pretty tight ship out here when it comes to regulations… but I still hate that logging is happening. And I am very aware of the hypocrisy at play here. As I write these words from my home and I look around the room, I see 6 different pieces of furniture that are made out of wood, plus hardwood floors, in this room alone! As a renter and budget-shopper, I am quite sure that NONE of this wood has been or even could in the future be “reclaimed.” It’s all just waste in waiting. That wood had to come from somewhere. All of the things we consume had to be procured one way or another. It really makes you think about where our materials come from.
In the wake of an experience like this, it’s easy for a tree-hugger like me to focus on the negative. I don’t think that it’s going too far to say that what many people of my generation feel with regard to the climate crisis, is despair. If that is you, I would encourage you to resist the urge to doom scroll! Instead, roll up your sleeves and figure out what you can do to make a difference. I think that can start with something as simple as educating yourself. Here are a couple of podcast recommendations if you’re interested in learning more about how to un-doom the human race. (The specific episodes shown are just the most recent ones to have been released—they both have tons of episodes and you can start listening wherever you’d like.)
We’ve still got a lot of ground to cover in British Columbia, but before we turn the page, I want to pause here and emphasize just how beautiful and timeless this place feels. I would highly encourage you to come and see these forests for yourself.
In Dr. Suess’s ‘The Lorax,’ which I think is turning out to be one of the most profound and prophetic pieces of literature ever written, he writes the following:
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
That might feel cliché, so let me hit you with something more pragmatic to close. We literally—presently and actively—depend on ecosystems like this for survival. When we hurt them, we also hurt ourselves. I think it’s important to remember that this is not just what our planet used to look like in the distant past; it’s how our planet will look again after we’re all dead and gone. We need mother nature more than she needs us. In fact, she doesn’t need us at all. She’d probably be better off without us. The sooner we figure out how to work with her instead of against her, the better off we’ll be. This is the only planet we’ve got.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter was born & raised in Columbus, Ohio, and started this blog when he moved from Boston to Hanoi (Vietnam) in 2014. After years based in Nashville working on his band, The Great Palumbo, he now resides in London, UK.
