File:Coast Mountains (MODIS 2019-03-01).jpg

English: On February 24, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the snow-covered Coast Mountains.

The Coast Mountains extend from southwestern Yukon, Alaska, United States through the Alaska Panhandle and continue along the coast of British Columbia to the Fraser River in the South. Extending about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) in length and averaging very roughly 190 mi (300 km) in width, the Coast Mountains (also known as Coast Range) are part of the mountains known as the American Cordillera— a nearly unbroken series of mountain ranges the run along the west of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica.

A green, nearly snow-free island sits in the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia. This is Graham Island, the northernmost and one of the two main islands of the Haida Gwaii archipelago that sits off British Columbia’s west coast. Covered in rainforest and moss, Haida Gwaii has been called “Canada’s Galapagos” for the high numbers of endemic species (animals and plants found nowhere else on Earth). Just north of Graham Island, the narrow strait known as the Dixon Entrance straddles the boundary between Canada and the United States.