Anvil Island

Description

This image is 48 x 14.5-inches (122 x 37cm) in size. Canvas prints are sold stretched or unstretched. Stretched prints are available for pick up only in Vancouver. Addresses further afield will get unstretched canvases and paper prints rolled up in a tube for shipping. Instructions for stretching/framing will be included in the shipping tube.

This is a shot of Anvil Island in Howe Sound -on the Sea to Sky Highway between Vancouver and Squamish, BC. The small island in the foreground on the right is one of the Defence Islands. The big island with the pointy top is Anvil Island. Behind that you can see Gambier Island followed by the hills of Bowen Island in the background.

What drew me to this scene is the repetition of the shapes of these islands. The repeating pattern fading into the distance. I see this a lot on the coast. It’s one of the things I like about this part of the world.

I took this shot the same day I got the big shot of The Chief in Squamish. I was driving back along the Sea To Sky Highway and was struck by the colour and the patterns and the repetition. I pulled over at a highway pullout and traipsed through the trees until I had a good view. There is very little Photoshopping done to this image. The scene really was blue in the afternoon light.

From Wikipedia I learned about the origin of Anvil Island’s name: “The name was conferred on June 14, 1792 by Captain George Vancouver, whose journal for the day reads: “The sun shining at this time for a few minutes afforded an island which, from the shape of the mountain that composes it, obtained the name of Anvil island.” The reason for this peculiar name is caused by the shape of the island when looking at it upside-down. It’s supposed to look like an anvil, but most people do not get the upside-down part of it. So they end up saying it looks like a turtle.”

I’ve also heard it described as looking like an elephant –although this is when the island is seen from the south. You can see the elephant’s head from the Sea To Sky Highway when passing Horseshoe Bay and Lions Bay. The island looks like an elephant in the water up to about the base of its ears with the trunk extending east towards the highway.