Gros Morne National Park

Introducing Gros Morne National Park

This national park (709-458-2417; www.pc.gc.ca/grosmorne; adult/6-16yr/family per day $8.90/4.45/17.80; day-use facilities mid-May–mid-Oct) stepped into the world spotlight in 1987, when Unesco granted it World Heritage designation. To visitors, the park’s stunning flat-top mountains and deeply incised waterways are simply supernatural playgrounds. To geologists, this park is a blueprint for our planet and supplies evidence for theories such as plate tectonics. Specifically, the bronze-colored Tablelands are made of rock that comes from deep within the earth’s crust. Nowhere in the world is such material as easily accessed as in Gros Morne (it’s usually only found at unfathomable ocean depths). Such attributes have earned the park its ‘Galapagos of Geology’ nickname.

There is enough to do in and around the park to easily fill several days. The hiking, kayaking, camping, wildlife-spotting and boat tours are fantastic.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009