Here’s Why You Should Visit Gros Morne National Park

Gros Morne National Park is located in Canada’s easternmost province, Newfoundland and Labrador. It's one of the country's least visited national parks—but it's also one of its most beautiful and underrated.

As Canada’s most visited national park, Banff National Park welcomes over 4.5 million visitors each year. And while Banff is certainly a place of outstanding beauty, those looking to soak in Canada’s wild landscapes without the crowds, should look not west, but east, to one of the country’s most hidden wonders: Gros Morne National Park.

Gros Morne lies on the western side of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s easternmost province and one of its least populated regions. Newfoundland and Labrador is startling in its expansiveness and is over 405,000 square miles large.

It’s also amazingly wild, with a population of just under 600,000 people and a moose population of over 120,000. Moose, however, are actually not native to the province and were brought over in the early 20th century from nearby New Brunswick, specifically for sport hunting. Fast forward to the present day, and it has one of the largest populations of moose in North America.

It's this remote geography that makes Gros Morne National Park so intriguing—but less than 250,000 people visit it each year. However, Gros Morne is also far more accessible than one might think. Visitors can fly into Deer Lake Regional Airport via direct flights from Toronto and be in the park after a short 25-minute drive.

The park stretches across nearly 700 square miles and is home to a diverse set of ecosystems, including towering mountains (such as the eponymously named Gros Morne Mountain), majestic fjords, barren moonscape-like stretches, lush forests, and rocky coastal paths. Visitors can choose from gentle walks along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to an all-day, nearly vertical climb to the top of Gros Morne Mountain for a bird’s-eye view of glacially carved fjords, to hikes so off the beaten path you’ll need expert compass skills and a boat to reach the trailhead.

While it’s tempting to focus on the park's spindly mountain tops, one of Gros Morne’s greatest wonders is at a much lower elevation, in an area known as the Tablelands. This glacially carved valley was formed by a rare geological phenomenon that caused parts of the Earth’s mantle to push out through its crust. Forged over a billion years ago, the Tablelands in Gros Morne are one of the only places in the world where you can see this phenomenon.

And if you go, chances are you’ll have it all to yourself. Well, to yourself and the moose.