Canada Adds Newest National Park And UNESCO World Heritage Site
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. Photo: Destination St. Johns
This year, Newfoundland Labrador welcomed its fourth national park—the Mealy Mountains National Park—and in July, UNESCO selected Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve as the province's fourth World Heritage site.
The 115,000 square-mile Mealy Mountains National Park in Labrador offers glacier-carved mountains nearly 4,000 feet tall, wild rivers with Atlantic salmon and trout, tundra, boreal forest and coastline. The Innu, the Inuit and the Métis share the habitat with wolves, black bear, fox, marten and a threatened caribou herd.
Also in July, a 3.5-mile stretch of coastline at the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve on the southeastern tip of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, was named a UNESCO World Heritage site because it contains Precambian fossils that are 560-580 million years old. Visitors there must take a guided tour, which includes a moderate 45-minute walk to the fossil site.