Kayakers en route to Holberg Inlet from Port Hardy

Keep your camera handy, as the northern region of Vancouver Island is a remarkable area teeming with wildlife, and the chances of seeing bear and deer are good.

Location: Holberg is located 42km west of Port Hardy at the head of Holberg Inlet. Port Hardy is the closest commercial Airport providing flights to Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and many coastal communities.

• Visit the garden of Bernt Ronning, who wrote to all corners of the world asking for exotic seedlings. Find old and new Monkey Puzzle Trees; drifts of bulbs in spring; old rhododendrons in early summer; maple, beech, and oak leaves in fall; and gnarled branches in winter. Ronning Gardens is located beside San Josef Wagon Road.

• Look for the Shoe Tree - what began as a lark by Holberg resident Tracey Anonson in 1989, this old cedar snag now bears hundreds of shoes, sneakers, sandals and boots.

• Gateway to Cape Scott Provincial Park - a stormy, rugged wilderness, but a network of trails cut by those enterprising Danish settlers makes it a paradise for the well-prepared hiker. From the park's main parking lot, historic trails traverse the upland areas in two directions, either north to Cape Scott or southwest to San Josef Bay. There are more than 35 miles of ocean frontage within the park, composed of rocky headlands and promonotories interspersed with wide, sandy beaches such as at Nels Bight. The north coast extends about 11 miles from Cape Scott to the park's eastern boundary. It features three large bays at Experiment Bight, Nels Bight, and Nissen Bight, where backcountry explorers will find white sandy beaches. The western (Pacific) coast is vunerable to southwesterly storms, which makes it a more rugged, exposed shoreline. The three sandy beaches here at Guise, Hansen, and Lowrie Bays are smaller than the northern ones and are separated by long stretches of rocky coast. Cape Scott's strategic location means that it is a natural gathering place for migratory birds. The park is also home to both wolves and bears.

• Not far from Cape Scott Park is Raft Cove Provincial Park - it's wonderfully scenic, attracting wilderness adventurers on day hikes or backpackers carrying in overnight gear to set up camp on the 1.3 km sandy beach - a great place to really get away from it all.

• Golf: Golfers can head to the public, 9-hole, Par 35 Seven Hills Golf & Country Club in nearby Port Hardy, the northernmost golf course on Vancouver Island. Seven Hills offers the golfer meadering fairways and undulating greens, with scenic views of the North Island Mountains. Open year round. Golf Vacations on Vancouver Island.

• Port Hardy is the largest community of the North Island, located at the northern end of the Island Highway, 42km east of Holberg. Travellers arriving by road will pass through Port hardy en route to Holberg.

• Winter Harbour is an outpost community on the edge of the Pacific Ocean west of Holberg.The docks at Winter harbour are always busy, providing modern fishing boats with a welcome respite from the rugged northwest coast of Vancouver Island.