In this on‑location travelogue, Jeffrey Bland, PhD, and a companion narrate their family’s boat journey up the British Columbia fjords to Princess Louisa Inlet. They describe the inlet’s remarkable depth (about 900 ft) carved by glacial erosion, the critical need to time the passage through the notorious Malibu Rapids at slack tide to avoid cataracts, overfalls, whirlpools, and other hazards that have grounded larger vessels. The narration highlights the narrow, rocky entrance, the nearby Malibu Camp bustling with summer youth activities, and the spectacular scenery—including up to 40 waterfalls and a vista the speaker likens to a water‑filled Yosemite Valley. After safely transiting the rapids, the family looks forward to warm (≈70 °F) waters for swimming and mountain hiking. The video blends vivid natural observation, safety commentary, and personal excitement about the family adventure.
Well, here we are.
We're heading up in this incredible British Columbia area to a place called Princess Louise Inlet. It's about, oh, about 100 miles inland into the Rockies as you head up these fjords that are in British Columbia. It's just spectacular. The water here is 900 feet deep, believe it or not, from the glacial erosion. And we're going to be heading up to what's called Malibu Rapids, a very famous place where you only have a few minutes to pass before the tide changes and it becomes a cataract. So yeah, this is, uh, part of our extraordinary family journey here up in nature's world, God's world, British Columbia.
Well, remember I told you we're going to go through, uh, Princess Louise Inlet, Malibu Rapids? We've waited for the absolute slack tide, hopefully. So we're going to chronicle our little experience here. This is the first time I've ever had the privilege of actually being up on the bow of the boat as we go through the rapids into Princess Louise Inlet. So we'll get a chance to see the whole experience here that has grounded many boats over the years as a consequence of kind of not being patient to allow this to settle down, because you can have cataracts, overfalls, Whirlpools, all sorts of things that have taken 150-foot boats onto the shore. Yeah, so we want to avoid that, obviously. So, um, here we are, uh, and we will watch ourselves head in this little hole that'll take us into, into Princess Louisa Inlet, and you'll see it all in vivid experience here in the next few seconds. So in the next few minutes. We're starting to align ourselves now with the, uh, with what are called the rapids. Hopefully there's no rapids, and, uh, we will start entering. There's, by the way, there's a camp right here on the shore. You probably know that it's called the Malibu Camp, and it's a really active place in the summer with a lot of kids, boys and girls, having their summer experience in Outback and mountain climbing and all sorts of stuff. So here we will be heading into, uh, to see and witness this, uh, this interesting part of nature's gifts, the Malibu Rapids Princess Louisa Inlet. So you can see it right ahead of us here, and we're starting into it now. Oh, the water looks very nice and calm so far. This is good because it was half an hour ago, it was moving like 6 knots and cataracts. So it's nice to see it kind of calmed out and peaceful so we can enjoy this entry into, uh, into this, into this magnificent really jewel. I call it the Yosemite Valley with water is what I call it. It's really, uh, just a magnificent place. So here we go, we're going by the camp. You'll notice over there on the shore it's not a really wide inlet, so there's the other side right there. So you notice we got Rocks on one side. If it's rough in here, it can be pretty nasty with slides slipping. And yeah, that's not even a good word I want to have in my vocabulary, actually. So here we go. And once you're through, then it's safe entry, and you've got this incredible vista of the Princess Louisa Inlet. And at one time, we had as many as 40 waterfalls coming into this place. You can see the kids over here on the shore, hopefully willing us good, good, uh, good cheer as we travel through. The water's still moving in this section, but it's not moving it the way it was, that's for sure. Uh, it's manageable. We've got enough power and energy in this boat, hopefully, to, uh, keep us on the straight and narrow. So there's the shore over there, you can see it, and there's the shore over here. So yeah, we're having some fun navigating through this narrow entry into Princess Louisa Inlet. And yeah, we got some sea creatures over here watching us, seeing if they can have some fun this afternoon watching the mariners transit the— Oh yeah, we got all sorts of hearty souls on the shore there as we travel by. And this is a kind of narrow spot in, uh, in the inlet, so you can get a good, good sense to what's going on there. Yeah, hallelujah, we're through the rough, what could be difficult part of the Princess Louise Inlet. And there's the Bland family, so we're all intact. So yeah, we're heading into really a few days in this Incredible place where the water is warm, believe it or not, up here, 70 degrees because of the tidal flows. And so yeah, we'll be doing some swimming and doing some hiking, getting up into the mountains. So that's it, that's your Princess Louisa Inlet Malibu Rapids introduction.
