What is Gros Morne National Park?

Gros Morne National Park is a 1,805-square-kilometre national park on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland in Newfoundland and Labrador. The park was established in 1973 and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 for its exceptional geological value, particularly the Tablelands. Gros Morne is the second-largest national park in Atlantic Canada (after Torngat Mountains in Labrador) and one of the most ecologically and geologically diverse parks in Canada.

The Tablelands are the park's most famous feature. The yellow-brown rocky plateau is a section of Earth mantle (peridotite, a rock normally found only deep beneath the Earth's surface) that was thrust up onto the continental crust about 470 million years ago during the closing of the Iapetus Ocean. The Tablelands are one of the few places on Earth where mantle rock is exposed at the surface, and the site provided crucial evidence for the modern theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s and 1970s. The peridotite is toxic to most plants because of its high magnesium and low calcium content, producing a barren landscape that contrasts dramatically with the surrounding boreal forest.

The park's other major features include the Long Range Mountains, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Mountain system in Canada (with peaks rising to about 800 metres above sea level); the freshwater fjord Western Brook Pond, carved by Pleistocene glaciation and now landlocked, with cliffs rising 600 metres on each side; the Bonne Bay fjord, still connected to the sea; and the coastal lowlands with boreal forest, bogs, fens, and dune systems. Mount Gros Morne (806 metres) is the second-highest peak on Newfoundland Island (after the Cabox in the Lewis Hills).

The park supports caribou (the threatened Newfoundland population), moose, black bear, lynx, beaver, snowshoe hare, and the rare Arctic hare. The bird life includes ptarmigan, the rare American black duck, common loons, and bald eagles. The Discovery Centre at Woody Point and the Visitor Centre at Rocky Harbour offer interpretive programmes. Park access is via Route 430 (the Viking Trail) from Deer Lake to St. Anthony, with the major communities of Rocky Harbour, Norris Point, Woody Point, and Trout River within or adjacent to the park. The Mi'kmaq Nation (particularly the Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nation) and the historic Beothuk (now extinct after Shanawdithit's death in 1829) hold ancestral territory in the area.