We have ten mountain ranges that push west from The Rockies in a crowded parade until they fall into the Pacific. Thousand year old trees that deftly divide the light falling on an impossibly green forest floor. Glacier-fed streams that pour through steep valleys to join swollen rivers.
For persons with disabilities, major urban centres like Vancouver and Victoria offer many options. Vancouver was named “the most accessible city in the world” years before it hosted the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and the region’s major gateway, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is considered one of the most accessible airports in the world.
In general, however, temperatures are warmer in the south than in the north, and rainfall is heaviest along the coast and lightest in the southern interior. BC is a large province, and therefore has a number of different climatic zones.
It is thought that BC’s coastal region became one of the most densely populated areas in North America. Prior to European contact, BC’s First Nations populations may have numbered some 300,000. The Aboriginal way of life would continue undisturbed for thousands of years, until the arrival of the British in 1778.
It is bounded by the Alaskan Panhandle and the Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north; Washington, Idaho and Montana to the south; Alberta to the east; and the Pacific Ocean to the west.