Cruising Northwest Coast Beauty Awaits, From Princess Louisa Inlet To Skagit Valley Tulips

Where master mariner George Vancouver would not risk his exploration ship Discovery at the mouth of Princess Louisa Inlet, we blithely sail on, with plans for a salmon bake on the sun deck in the afternoon.

Cruising out of Seattle aboard the 84-passenger Spirit of Discovery, we are reminded of Vancouver’s achievement in charting the islands and jagged coastline of present-day British Columbia and Washington in the 1790s, seeking the fabled Northwest Passage.

But on this fine April morning, three days into our week-long journey, thoughts of the navigator’s daunting cartography dissipate like the misting pillow of clouds that guards the entrance to Princess Louisa.

Our plan is to enter the four-mile fjord at slack tide, spend five or six hours cruising within its sheltering perpendicular walls, and to exit safely past the inlet’s rocky opening when the afternoon tide is again favorable.

British Columbia’s Princess Louisa has been “discovered many times,” confesses Kathy, our cruise director. “This stunning beauty draws a crowd in summer.”

Hearing this, Vancouver’s cautious turn seems all the more a pity. After two yachts pass by, we are alone in the slender waterway for our entire visit.

The profile of a bald eagle perched upon a snag pine greets us at the entrance to the estuary. Inside, a profusion of waterfalls wash down scoured granite mountainsides like trails of thin milk. The slanting sun leaves each dripping-down cedar and pine haloed in a triangle of light. Our quiet passage barely disturbs the water’s polished image of the overarching heavens.

A drowned Yosemite, or a pocket Norway? Princess Louisa Inlet, named after the fourth of Queen Victoria’s daughters, proudly fashions a regal splendor all its own, and none of the channel’s exquisiteness is lost on us this day.

For Californians Don and Enid, leaning over the bow to get an earful of the inlet’s Chatterbox Falls, this marks a satisfying crowning point to the cruise. “We wondered if Princess Louisa could possibly match descriptions we had read. Not any more.”

By the time we sail back into the waters of Jervis Inlet and Desolation Sound, bound for Victoria, our gunny sack of superlatives is about empty - with four days left on our journey. How had tireless George Vancouver managed?

The explorer had a job to do, while we are content to leisurely crisscross the protected waters of Canada’s Inside Passage toward more southerly ports of call.

A lovely day in Victoria, a city ready to burst with spring bloom, includes an optional tour of Butchart Garden’s tidy, scented parcel of paradise. Leaving Victoria’s Inner Harbour late at night, the illuminated outlines of British Columbia’s Parliament Building and the Empress Hotel sink into the dark waters of the Strait of Georgia.

Early next morning, we dock a few miles up the coast of Vancouver Island to spend the morning at Chemainus. Noted for its outstanding historical murals, Chemainus has made “staring at the walls” a form of cultural enlightenment.

Tartan-clad Stafford Andrews escorts us around this town of 3,000 people, which was threatened with extinction when the local mill ceased operations in the 1980s. Since turning artists loose on the town, touristy Chemainus has rebounded to become known boastfully as “the town that refused to die.”

After crossing over to the mainland, we spend the rest of the day in George Vancouver’s namesake city. Tours by land and seaplane are available. Some in our company elect to noodle around Chinatown or make a pub crawl in historic Gastown. When the port’s traditional Nine O’clock Gun sounds, the cannon blast signals all aboard ship. Farewell, Canada.

Friday Harbor on San Juan Island marks our U.S. customs checkpoint. The green chain of the San Juans - the drowned foothills of the Cascade Mountains - was disputed territory in the 1850s, when the United States and Britain stood nose-to-nose in the bloodless (except for one porcine inhabitant) Pig War.

We visit the island’s old English military camp as well as the seaside resort of Roche Harbor before shoving off, making our way through the San Juan’s aquatic maze to Orcas Island. Here, an evening of music and local history awaits us at Rosario resort.

All week long, tulips have decorated the lounge and dining room of the ship in anticipation of the show of spring bloom we would see at Washington’s Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

Disembarking at La Conner the following morning, we step into a painting - or so it seems - whose colorful composition fatigues one’s vision. In the blunt language of our guide: “You folks hit it just right.”

A patch of tulips as red as the tip of a match is juxtaposed with a yellow swath having the intensity of an egg yolk. Alternating bands of magenta, orange and white create a patterned foreground for reposeful old farm houses.

It’s a picture-perfect idyll whose season lasts only a few weeks, before the flowering heads are chopped off in order to preserve vigor in the body. Bulbs are the real cash crop - only 10 percent of tulip revenues come from cuttings. In this short time, more than 400,000 people will tip-toe (or putt-putt in traffic) through tulip country for a look.

Back aboard the Spirit of Discovery, we’re bound for Port Townsend, our last stop before returning to Seattle. Three grey whales are spotted in waters of Puget Sound. The captain cuts the engines, and for some time, we have whales spouting just off the bow of the ship.

This dallying, a benefit of smallship cruising, causes us to be a bit tardy for our walking tour, though. Local Kenneth Webb is waiting to guide us through the old downtown. “Port Townsend went from rags to riches and back to rags,” he notes, “and this history is what makes the town an interesting place to live.”

A retired seaman, Webb gives us a quick study of the region’s maritime history, remarking that he could navigate the Northwest using maps that George Vancouver charted 200 years ago.

An impressive achievement, to be sure, but it would be a shame if Webb, like the great explorer, were to sail past Princess Louisa without enjoying a look.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO What to expect

This is not the party crowd. Small-ship river cruisers forego the glitzier aspects of the big boats for a more low-key and informal experience that includes daily shore excursions - a preference that was expressed over and over again by group members. Most passengers are retirees with previous cruising experience who are not necessarily looking for a “trip of a lifetime.”

What it costs Departures run April-November. Rates vary by season and cabin category: $1,595 to $4,295.

For more information Alaska Sightseeing/Cruise West, Fourth & Battery Bldg., Suite 700, Seattle, WA 98121; (206)441-8687 or (800)426-7702. Or contact any travel agent.