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.
Vancouver is kind of a perplexing place because it mashes together a lot of puzzle pieces that don’t really seem like they should fit. Or at least, they didn’t to me. When I first arrived, I was having a sort of dissociative experience trying to piece it all together and make sense of things.
First off, there’s the location. Looking northward, Vancouver is built into a landscape that seems entirely impractical for a major city. It’s hard to believe just how close the northerly Cascade mountains are to the city. The northern suburbs of Vancouver literally slope upwards as far as physics will allow before you’re headed towards snow caps. 🏔
Some places hit you with vibes the second you step out of the airport. The air is different. The energy is different. Even the industrial in-between areas around the airport and the highway have a strong sense of character. Seattle is one of those places. In a happy twist of fate, I unwittingly ended up on the same flight to and from Seattle as one of my buddies in BNA, so I got the express pass into the city riding shotgun in the car that he had rented. Seeing the breathtaking Cascadian landscape unfold before us, I could not stop talking about how cool it all was. The mountainous terrain makes it so you are always either arriving at or leaving from a scenic vista, each of which provides a more gorgeous view than the last. Looking out in any direction, there are always multiple layers of water, city, and evergreen-dominated foothills between you and a background of MUCH larger mountains. And those mountains are always set against an expressive sky, which alternates between a clear, northerly baby-blue color, or a swirling moody mass of clouds.
