Qualla: Princess Louisa Inlet

Princess Louisa Inlet: Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Klaus Johansson, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1792, George Vancouver sailed the length of Jervis Inlet, charting its every cove and headland for the British Admiralty, and found the entrance to a hidden fjord branching off to the northeast. He did not go in. The tide was ebbing through Malibu Rapids, and the current was too strong. That moment of deferral captures something essential about Princess Louisa Inlet: it does not give itself up easily. The 6-kilometer fjord, tucked within the swiya -- the traditional territory -- of the shishalh Nation, sits behind a tidal gate that opens only at slack water. Those who time it right enter a place where granite walls climb thousands of feet straight from the waterline and waterfalls pour down from snowfields invisible above.

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Image: Klaus Johansson | CC BY-SA 4.0

Princess Louisa Inlet: A Fjord Within a Fjord

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Klaus Johansson, CC BY-SA 4.0. Princess Louisa Inlet branches off the northeastern end of Queens Reach, itself the upper arm of Jervis Inlet, one of the longest fjords on the BC coast. The entrance is Malibu Rapids, a shallow, narrow passage where tidal currents reach 9 knots during peak flow. Beyond the rapid...

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Image: Klaus Johansson | CC BY-SA 4.0

Princess Louisa Inlet: Hamilton's Dream, Abandoned

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit McKay Savage from London, UK, CC BY 2.0. The modern history of Princess Louisa Inlet pivots on a single transaction. In 1940, Herman Caspar, a squatter who had no legal title to the land, sold his claim at the inlet's entrance to Thomas F. Hamilton for $500. Hamilton was an American aviation executive with grand ambitio...

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Image: McKay Savage from London, UK | CC BY 2.0

Princess Louisa Inlet: Royal Names on Glacial Walls

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Carport, CC BY-SA 3.0. The inlet's name likely honors Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, whose husband, the Marquess of Lorne, served as Governor General of Canada. Princess Louise visited British Columbia in 1882 with her husband and became so popular in the province that when the transconti...

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Image: Carport | CC BY-SA 3.0

Princess Louisa Inlet: The shishalh Homeland

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Klaus Johansson, CC BY-SA 4.0. Long before the fjord carried a princess's name, the shishalh Nation knew this landscape as part of their swiya. A village called asxwikwu stood at the mouth of the inlet, and the surrounding waters, forests, and salmon streams sustained communities whose presence here stretches ...

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Image: Klaus Johansson | CC BY-SA 4.0

Princess Louisa Inlet: Getting There Is the Story

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit McKay Savage from London, UK, CC BY 2.0. No road comes within 50 kilometers of Princess Louisa Inlet. The nearest point of vehicle access is the BC Ferries landing at Earls Cove on Highway 101. From there, visitors proceed by boat, floatplane, or water taxi, navigating the length of Jervis Inlet before timing their tran...

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Image: McKay Savage from London, UK | CC BY 2.0