A six to eight hour ferry crossing from Prince Rupert, BC will get you and your car to Skidgate Landing on Graham Island. Your car will not do you much good as there are only 120 km of paved road on the islands and the ferry charges for taking your car from island to island will eat up a generous budget. Even then your car will only get you to Moresby Camp, 30 km outside of the park boundaries. It is easier to rely on hiking, kayaking, or even taxis around the towns and settled areas north of the Gwaii Haanas National Park. A popular way to visit the area is to sign up with a tour group that uses a mixture of kayaking and hiking for exploration with overnight stays on a kayak mothership anchored off-shore. Others prefer to bring their ocean going sail or motor boat for an island cruise; anchoring in protected bays and coves. Commercial facilities for boats are available in Queen Charlotte, Sandspit, and Masset; all north of the park.

The 1470 square kilometers of the Gwaii Haanas National Park is just about 15% of the total island area. The park was formed in 1988 as part of a settlement of the decade long conflict between the Haida Nation and logging companies that were taking timber from South Moresby Island. As a result the Archipelago Management Board (AMB) was formed, with equal participation of the Canadian Government and Council of the Haida Nation, to manage the park. This team is also in the process of establishing the Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area in the waters surrounding the park.

The Gwaii Haanas National Park is a mixture of rocky coastline, wood lined bays, intertidal pools, and the heavily forested San Christoval Mountains. The western coast is rocky and treacherous, pounded by the prevailing currents and winds from the Pacific Ocean. The eastern coast is more protected, though the winds can be tricky when the northwesterly winds blow during the summer or when frontal systems bring winter storms.

The lower slopes of the San Christoval Mountains are thickly covered in trees; cedar, pine, hemlock and spruce. The higher slopes, reaching 1,123 meters at the top of Mount de la Touche, are dominated by mountain hemlock and alpine tundra zones. This area, once a part of the mainland, was isolated by the sudden rise in sea levels at the end of the last ice age. This means that evolution has caused many species of plants and animal to diverge from their mainland counterparts and others have disappeared all together. Deer for example were absent from the island until the British reintroduced them in the early 1800s for food. The rapid expansion of the deer herds, without natural enemies, has had a profound effect on the understory of the forests on the islands where they live.

There are truly amazing discoveries to be made by modern explorers of the islands in discovering the archeological remains of the early Haida Nation. Before the Europeans brought Small Pox and other diseases to these islands the population was much larger. The culture of the Haida was a culture of art and decoration. Wood carvings, totem poles, and strongly built cedar houses can all be found even today in villages protected by native Watchmen. Other cultural remains can be found just about anywhere on the islands.

The Gwaii Haanas National Park is a unique part of the Canadian Park System. Managed by a board of Native Canadians and the Canadian Governement, the park protects a special natural and cultural treasure. The careful traveler can expect many surprises in their exploration of the park.