Many years ago I did a long beach walk/backpacking trip on the east coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago. When taking us to our drop-off point at the beginning of our trip, our driver stopped so that we could see a local landmark known as Balance Rock. It was quite cloudy and the sun was low so my photographs mostly showing the Rock’s silhouette. The photo does not give you a perspective of the rock’s size — perhaps 15-20 feet wide and 8 – 10 feet tall.
Balance Rock is one of the boulders left behind by the retreating ice from the last ice age. It’s balancing on a relatively small point and sits right by the Pacific Ocean. It must be frequently be ravaged by the wind and pounded by surf during storms, but it sits solidly in place, so well is it balanced. Groups of people have tried to move or push the rock over, without success. There is even a rumor that an old miner tried to dynamite it, but if so he obviously failed.
There are a number of large and interesting balanced rocks in the world. I’ve seen a few of these, and was surprised to see that Balance Rock on Haidi Gwaii made the list.
