WILD & WONDERFUL PLACES FOR OUTDOOR ADVENTURES

With 37 national parks spread across every province, forged by diverse landscapes including lakes, boreal forests and Pacific beaches, Canada is the ideal wilderness playground for adventurous souls

2023-05-04 -

BEST FOR GEOLOGICAL WONDERS: GROS MORNE

Despite being home to landscapes so otherworldly it’s landed its own starring role in this spring’s Disney film release, Peter Pan & Wendy, Newfoundland and Labrador remains one of Canada’s most overlooked provinces. Taking pride of place on its west coast is UNESCO-listed Gros Morne National Park, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Atlantic Canada’s second-largest national park, it’s a jostle of jagged cliffs knifing into deep, blue fjords, waterfalls and seaside villages. The park’s calling card is an ancient treasure — the Tablelands, a plateau pushed up from the Earth’s crust by shifts in the tectonic plates and one of only a few places in the world you can walk on the Earth’s mantle.

You don’t have to be a geologist to marvel at this monstrous upsurge of ancient history. Following the waymarked, 2.5-mile Tablelands Trail takes hikers over the ancient seabed and pits their calves against the strenuous 11-mile Gros Morne Mountain Trail for bucket-list views of the Ten Mile Pond fjord.

If you’d prefer a four-wheel adventure, try the 300-milelong Viking Trail, which stretches from Deer Lake to St Anthony and passes through the park. Travellers with nippers in tow should try the Western Brook Pond Trail, a flat, five-mile loop ideal for short legs; spy crabs in the glass-clear water aboard rented kayaks, enjoy the kidfriendly museum at Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse or have bucket-and-spade playtime at sandy Shallow Bay Beach. newfoundlandlabrador.com

BEST FOR SOFT ADVENTURE: THOUSAND ISLANDS

One of Canada’s smallest national parks, Ontario’s Thousand Islands is located in a region of the same name, and made up of

21 isles and numerous smaller islets in the St Lawrence River, between Brockville and Kingston. Formed from the worn-down peaks of ancient mountains, much of it is open for camping — tent-cabin hybrids are a popular, family-friendly option here. Mallorytown, with its aquarium, forms the main hub. Most people get around by boat or kayak, and, come spring, the smell of maple sweet treats emanating from seasonal ‘sugar shack’ restaurants fills the air. visit1000islands.com

BEST FOR A NATIONAL PARK PILGRIMAGE: BANFF

Canada’s first national park, Banff sits in the palm of the snow-dusted Rocky Mountains and has drawn travellers to its natural hot springs since it first opened in 1885. Those mineral baths inspired the construction of the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, a 135-year-old, Scottish baronial-style castle on the shores of mint-blue Lake Louise. The action here centres around the skiing town of Banff, but the mountains are home to wildlife such as moose and grizzly bears. For the best chance of seeing them, head out at dawn or dusk and keep your eyes peeled. banffnationalpark.com

BEST FOR WILDLIFE: JASPER

Banff’s northern, lesser-visited neighbour, Jasper, is double its size and the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies. A hiker’s region of wild peaks, it’s hard not to bump into wildlife here. Elk graze by the roadside, big horn sheep haunt the hillsides and the calls of wolves echo between the valleys. Time your visit for spring or autumn when wildlife-watching is at its zenith. Nonhikers can ride gondolas up the mountainside for superlative valley views and, come night, stay out to ogle the stars (Jasper is the secondlargest Dark Sky Preserve in the world). jasper.travel

BEST FOR HIKERS: NAHANNI

A poster child for raw adventure, UNESCOlisted Nahanni National Park was named by the First Nation Dehcho people. Located in the Northwest Territories, it’s a jostle of vertiginous mountains cut through by the raging South Nahanni River. When winter’s grip has loosened, you can try whitewater rafting or board a scenic flight to see Virginia Falls (twice the height of Niagara). Most visitors come to attempt the Cirque of the Unclimables, a cluster of steep, granite peaks, including the 2,570-metre Lotus Flower Tower, considered a rite of passage for climbers in North America. parks.canada.ca/pn-np/nt/nahanni ET

When the wreck of the HMS Terror was discovered off the coast of King William Island, Nunavut, in 2016, it had been missing for 168 years. With sister ship HMS Erebus having been found in shallow Arctic waters nearby two years earlier, Terror’s discovery was the missing piece in one of the messiest jigsaw puzzles of polar exploration to date.

British explorer Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated 19th-century expedition to find the as-yet unmapped, seasonally impassable Northwest Passage — a sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans — was a endeavour that had gripped Victorian England, with tales of cannibalism, shamanism and mutiny accompanying its vanishing.

Canada’s High Arctic coastline and the scattered islands that surround the Northwest Passage — a treacherous route once seen as the golden ticket to facilitate trade links between Europe and Asia — still remain largely uncharted, thanks to its icebound conditions outside of summer. That said, it makes for an exciting place for adventure afloat.

Landings here are frequent, if cautious, the experienced crews of the few small ships that drop anchor here needing to be on constant alert for dangerous wildlife, pack ice and shallow water. Rigid inflatable boats zip passengers ashore, past seals flopping on and off the ice floe and gyrfalcons flying overhead. Treks take in scree-strewn shores where polar bears and musk ox roam. Binocular-glued guides are watchful, giving fauna a wide berth. At night, ships plough into inky seas where the narwhal thrives, the water lit, if lucky, with the green glow of the aurora borealis.

Remote as it seems, this is the territory of Inuit communities, scattered around the passage in far-flung towns such as Resolute, on Cornwallis Island. Here, subsistence living is supplemented by selling traditional soapstone carvings; sculptures of ice bears guiding huntsmen reflect the human-animal symbiosis that’s central to Inuit culture. Island communities have played a vital role in piecing together details of the Franklin expedition’s fate — oral histories and artefact finds ultimately leading to the ships’ discovery.

With summer sea ice receding, the commerce first dreamed of by early explorers becomes viable, the growing number of Qallunaaq (non-Inuit) ships docking on Nunavut’s shores brings both opportunities and conservation concerns to the custodians of these fragile fringes. But for now, passage through these waters is still a privilege, granted by the weather and guided by local expertise.

HOW TO DO IT: Northwest Passage itineraries are 10 to 17 days long, departing August and September. Prices start at around £8,000 per person, all-inclusive, excluding international flights. Book with operators including hurtigruten.com swoop-arctic.com adventurecanada.com