NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 625

essential island-dining experience. Within a rustic wooden building surrounded by old-
growth forest, this café serves up hearty lunch specials, pours delicious coffee, and has a
rush on their in-house baked cinnamon buns each morning.
NAIKOON PROVINCIAL PARK
This wild coastal park encompasses some 72,640 hectares (179,500 acres) along the north-
east tip of Graham Island. Tlell marks the park's southern boundary, while access to the
northern reaches is via the road out to Tow Hill, 26 kilometers (16 miles) east of Masset.
The park's dominant features are its beaches, 97 kilometers (60 miles) of them, bordering
Hecate Strait on the east and the turbulent Dixon Entrance on the north. Most of the rest
of the park is lowlands, surrounded by stunted lodgepole pine, red and yellow cedar, west-
ern hemlock, and Sitka spruce. Wildlife is abundant; black-tailed deer, black bears, marten,
river otters, raccoons, red squirrels, beavers, muskrats, small herds of wild cattle, and many
species of birds inhabit the park. Dolphins, orcas, porpoises, and seals swim offshore year-
round, and northern fur seals and California gray whales migrate north past the park in May
and June.
Sights
The drive out to the park from Masset is superb, passing through seemingly endless moss-
draped trees. Along the way you pass Tow Hill Ecological Reserve, a beautiful spruce
forest where birds tweet from the treetops, and the ground and most of the trees are com-
pletely cushioned by spongy yellow moss.
The road passes the base of Tow Hill and ends at the southern end of long, sandy North
Beach. This strip of sand, strewn with shells, driftwood, and shiny, sea-worn pebbles of
every color under the sun, is a beachcomber's delight. The beach is best known for semipre-
cious agate, ranging from light yellow in color to almost translucent, which is found among
piles of pebbles that become exposed at low tide starting about three kilometers (1.9 miles)
along the beach. At the end of North Beach is Rose Spit. Known to the Haida as Naikoon,
meaning “long nose,” this narrow point of land separates the waters of Hecate Strait and
Dixon Entrance. From the end of Tow Hill Road, it's about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of
easy beach walking to the end of the spit; if you allow six hours for the round-trip, you'll
have enough time to enjoy a picnic lunch among the driftwood along the way.
Head back toward Masset, along the beach from the end of the road, and Tow Hill is
impossible to miss. A one-kilometer (0.6-mile) trail leads to the top of this 130-meter-high
(430-foot-high) basalt monolith, or satisfy yourself with exploring the tidal pools at its base.