Gros Morne National Park

Area: about 1,800 sq. km (695 sq. mi.)

Gros Morne National Park is undoubtedly one of the most impressive natural features in eastern Canada, a magnificent landscape of fiords and mountains, partly covered with dense forest, and with wildlife and plant life adapted to cold conditions which are found scarcely anywhere else so far south.

The slopes of the Gros Morne (French for "big bleak hill") end in a plateau at about 600 m (1970 ft), with cliffs dropping down to the deep fiords (750 m (2460 ft)) of the Gulf of St Lawrence.

The park clearly shows the results of 400 million years of continental drift followed by successive ice ages which ended 12,000 years ago. The Long Range Mountains are amongst the oldest mountains on earth and have been shaped by advancing ice and the forces of erosion.

The difficult, 4 km (21/2 mi.) rocky ascent to the summit of the Gros Morne Mountain (806 m (2645 ft)) by the James Callaghan Trail is worth making for the breathtaking view over the whole park and coastal towns below. This is a place to see caribou and snow hares.

The park offers rock-climbing, boating, swimming, camping and fishing.