National Parks and Historic Sites

Witless Bay Ecological Reserve

The Witless Bay Ecological Reserve contains four islands - Gull, Green, Great, and Pee Pee - that teem with bird life. Seabirds generally spend most of the year at sea and only return to land from May to August to breed and raise their young. Public observation of their activities must be done from boats.

Cape Spear National Historic Site

Cape Spear National Historic Site is the most easterly point of land in Canada. From the mid 1800s a lighthouse has flashed its message from this point of land. This was only the second light to offer aid along any of Newfoundland's rocky coasts, even though the island had at the time been populated for two centuries.

Baccalieu Trail

Some of the oldest European settlements in North America were established here including Cupids (1610) and the Bristol's Hope Plantation at Harbour Grace (1618). Archaeological research conducted over the past ten years has also revealed a rich history of aboriginal occupation extending back over 4000 years.

Skerwink Coastal Trail

The name 'Skerwink' is most likely derived from a local seabird, the Haigdown, which the locals called 'Skerwingle' or 'Scurwink'. It's also considered one of six of the world's best places to visit nature's wild gardens; from a Bounty of spring lupines to the almost hidden delights of Arctic orchids.

Terra Nova National Park

The natural beauty and rugged wooded landscape are the most distinctive features of Newfoundland's first national park. Moose, black bear and other wildlife move freely in the forests and marshy bogs. Established in 1957 on Bonavista Bay, it was once inhabited by native Archaic, and Paleo-Eskimo peoples.

Gros Morne National Park

This Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The park is an area of great beauty with a rich variety of scenery and wildlife. Visitors can hike through wild, uninhabited mountains and camp by the sea. Boat tours bring visitors under towering cliffs of freshwater fjords carved out by glaciers.

Port aux Choix National Historic Site

The Maritime Archaic Indians were the earliest known people to frequent the Port au Choix area. They were hunters and gatherers, did not farm and relied on the sea and its products to sustain themselves. Their traditions date from 7500-3500 years before present (B.P.).

L'Anse aux Meadows Historic Site

In the past four to five thousand years, many people have lived at l'Anse aux Meadows. Among these people was a small group of Norse sailors. The remains of their camp, discovered in 1960, is the oldest known European settlement of the New World, and today an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Cabot Trail

The Trail loops around the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. It wasn't until 1936 that the Cape Breton Highlands National Park was created. Conserving the majestic highlands and coastal wilderness stretching across the northern tip of the island between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean.