All who visit or live here are cognizant of it. Even in the heart of downtown Vancouver it is hard to escape the fact that you are virtually on the doorstep of the great outdoors, with the sweep of the vast harbour, the towering stands of Douglas fir in Stanley Park, and the bulk of the Coast Mountains looming up immediately north of the city. Throughout the province, nature's majesty is omnipresent. Seemingly endless chains of snow-capped mountains march across the horizon, their high snowfields catching the last rays of the day's sun, or frostily glittering with early morning alpenglow.
Streams become rivers running briskly, their milky waters laden with glacial sediment.
Alpine meadows are carpets of dainty blossoms, and gently rolling ranchland recedes into the distance where the foothills of mountain ranges rise. Rural valleys become rich with the fragrance of the blossoms of fruit trees, and the silence of remote lakes is broken only by the haunting cries of the loon or the echoing squawks of a raven. The coastal rainforests, wild and huge, are home too much wildlife. The west coast of Vancouver Island, interspersed with rocky headlands and fine sandy beaches, misty from sea fret echoes to the constant boom of surf sweeping in from the Pacific Ocean. The opportunities to experience nature, in any of her guises, are virtually limitless.