They lie on the edge of the province's collective memory like a dream scarce remembered; mythical and elusive, full of meaning and beauty, yet incomprehensible to the waking mind. Impossible not to marvel at, and revel in, these are the Queen Charlotte Islands, arguably one of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes in the world. Sometimes called Canada's Galapagos, they form a distinctive ecosystem. The animals are familiar yet different. The black bears here, for instance, have a longer snout than elsewhere. They're also bigger, flying in the face of the so-called island rule of evolution, that large animals get smaller when trapped on an island.

The Charlottes are about 100 km off the mainland, and are made up of about 150 islands. Two islands, Graham to the north and Morseby to the south, comprise the majority of the land mass. Most of Moresby is inaccessible by car except via logging road (a far, far too common feature of the Charlottes) or an alternative form of transportation, such as chartered boat, sea kayak, floatplane, or foot. Wildly undeveloped and unprotected,