Thursday, January 29, 2009

SkyWatch Friday #29

The view from Sleeping Beauty Mountain looking east.

The community of Queen Charlotte (pop. 1046) is nestled between the ocean and the mountains. Sleeping Beauty Mountain is probably the best known mountain on the island because it is our backdrop and because there is a trail to its summit(s). It creates our weather, placing us in a rain shadow and giving us an early dusk. The village (which is located to the left of the big island in the above photo) was called Daajing.giids (prounced similiar to "dod-ging-geese") by the Haida which means "always wearing rain hat"....we should have clued in before we built here! The Haida hat is woven from strips of cedar and/or spruce root which expands when wet making it water tight and is shaped to direct the rain off the person.
The hike up Sleeping Beauty is not for the faint of heart, the trail rises from sea level to 760 m Mt. Genevieve(one of three peaks making up Sleeping Beauty) almost verticle. It takes 1.5 to 2 hours to climb and about 40 minutes to come down. Once on its crest you are standing with one foot on either side of the mountain! From its peak you can see both the Hecate Strait to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
The weather can change quickly. You can begin your hike up the mountain on a beautiful clear sunny day and by the time you reach the summit the clouds have rolled in and you can see nothing. On this day we were lucky!

For more beautiful sky pictures worldwide go to SkyWatch Friday

To learn more about Haida Cedar hats go to Jiixa


23 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a beautiful view, the sky, the water, the clouds. Just glorious!

Walker said...

Stunning capture, truly lovely.

Naturegirl said...

A wonderful sky watch post as well the info! Thank you for sharing! A fellow Canadian sky watcher!

EG CameraGirl said...

I would have been sooo disappointed to reach the top and then not see anything. I'm glad you saw the view and took it back down with you, captured by your camera.

Anonymous said...

A beautiful view surrounded, no doubt, buy beautiful views. You live in a special place and I so enjoy my visits to your World. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Its a great vieuw, nice shot

Guy D said...

Beautiful shot as always Carolyn, thanks for sharing.

Cheers and have a great weekend!
Regina In Pictures

Redzlan said...

Wonderful view from the top.

Anonymous said...

What a view you have!!! Stunning!
Thanks for sharing!
Greetings from West Africa,
Esther

Anonymous said...

Beautiful view and the color in the sky is amazing.

Jane Hards Photography said...

The colours are terrific and the vista is superb

Anonymous said...

What a lovely place, with the photo being made even more interesting bu the clouds!

studio lolo said...

Quite lovely! And I love the Stephen Foster quote by your picture :)

Anonymous said...

Fantastic & Breathtaking view! I love it - love it!!

Anonymous said...

It looks so peaceful, I enjoyed visiting your blog today:)

Ruth said...

What a beautiful place to call home. I enjoyed reading your other posts on this page. The picture here is perfection. I have never heard of this region of BC, shameful for a fellow Canadian.

VioletSky said...

I have always wanted to see Queen Charlotte Islands. Thank you for sharing so much information as well as your fortunate view.

Janie said...

What a great name for a mountain, and a beautiful view. Cool hats, too.

A Scattering said...

Beautiful photo and great info. I posted Haida information at PhotoHunt Saturday a couple of weeks ago at: http://ascattering.blogspot.com/2009/01/saturday-photo-hunt-hat.html
I'll be back to visit your blog again - it's very beautiful and informative.

Loran said...

Hi,
Thanks for the positive comment about my blog. I must return the favor! You have beautiful pictures of a place I didn't know existed. That's what is so great about SkyWatch, though, my geography is improving as well as my appreciation of the sky and making new friends in the blogging world!

CoyoteFe said...

Love the sky with the low-slung (relatively) clouds. Having a range called sleeping beauty is so romantic!

Victor Sinclair said...

I'm thinking you could create a great photo album with all these gorgeous shots and sell it to the BC Tourism board :>)

Great blog... very inspiring ! :>)

Tammie Lee said...

That sounds like a wonderful hike, one I would enjoy partaking in. Your image is pure beauty!
Sounds like we should all have a hat!

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