If British Columbia were a country, it would be the 32^nd largest in the world (or the 31^st, depending on which statistician you believe).  At around 945,000 square kilometres (365,000 square miles), it is on a par with Tanzania, and could quite easily swallow Spain, Germany and Austria all in one go.  And yet it is only Canada’s third largest province, accounting for just under 10% of the country’s entire surface area.

Apart from Alaska, which is just an absurdly sized slab of earth, no other US state comes close to matching BC’s sprawl, including Texas, a place that has earned its own adjective because it’s considered to be so monstrously large.  Moving across the pond, one would have to multiply England’s largest county – North Yorkshire – 117 times before it would even begin to feel snug within BC’s borders.

There’s more.  If you wanted to measure the coastline of the province – not the perimeter, you understand – and were inclined to do so using only 30cm rulers, you’d need to get your hands on something in the region of 85,750,000 lengths.  To use a slightly less incomprehensible illustration, it would be the equivalent of flying between London and Vancouver three times, and still having enough kilometres in your pocket to drive halfway across Canada on Highway 1.

But these facts reveal only part of the province’s extraordinary make up.  4.5 million people call British Columbia home, equivalent to just half the populations of London and New York City, while the entire United Kingdom, an area just a quarter of BC’s size, crams some 63 million people within its borders, as does Italy into an area just a third of BC’s spread.

Within Tanzania, a patch of land that you will recall is almost identical to British Columbia in its breadth, can be found almost 43 million people, which means you’ll meet an average of 46.3 persons in every square km traversed, eclipsing the 4.7 people you’re likely to bump into in a single square kilometre of British Columbia.

You get the idea that when we say British Columbia, we’re not just talking about a big place, but one that is vastly, vastly capacious.  To the visitor, this means two things: that there is a lot of peace and quiet to be found in British Columbia, and that there is a lot of British Columbia to get lost in.  The first is what attracts a lot of people to the province, the second is what catches them out.

But what a place to lose your bearings.  Two thirds of BC – an area larger than France – sits beneath dense forest, the majority of which is coniferous, making the province something of a ginormous air freshener.  This also means British Columbia is abundant with wildlife, of course, including grizzly bears, spotted owls and mountain caribou, as well as other organisms such as fungi and lichens.

This says nothing of the province’s vertical shape, however, which is one of the most dramatically erratic to be found anywhere on the planet, spawning an inevitable plethora of snow sports that see people plunge from the heights of a helicopter to the forests that cushion the valley floors.  At 4,671 metres (15,325 feet), the ironically named Fairweather Mountain is British Columbia’s highest peak (albeit one that is shared with neighbouring Alaska), crowning a landscape of brittle protrusions that spread from the province’s coast like a rash.

Altogether, BC offers more within its boundless expanse than any human could cover in a lifetime; indeed, there are parts of the province which may never have been seen through human eyes.  Naturally, it is thus a place of limitless discovery and inspiration, harbouring unknown opportunities and adventures that create a lure unlike anywhere else on earth.

For more information on the landscape of British Columbia, along with a comprehensive guide to everything the province has to offer, please visit MyDestination.com/BritishColumbia.

Alex Plim, My Destination
September 2011

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