Pacific Rim National Park
This fabulous wilderness landscape in British Columbia – a truly wild and isolated outpost of mists and surf, marine magic and lush rainforest – was the haunt of intrepid adventure buffs – undaunted by its inhospitable landscape, treacherous access and lack of decent accommodation…but driven by the allure of its wild beauty. With the birth of the National Park in 1970, a lot of things changed. The 126,500 acre sprawl can be found on Vancouver Island, where today millions of visitors follow the Pacific Rim Highway to enjoy some of the most spectacular views of Canada’s beautiful Pacific Coast. Camping, fishing, surfing, whale viewing and whale festivals are just a few of its allurements. A huge favourite is Long Beach, an untamed coastal space running parallel to the lush emerald rainforest and far mountains, between the town of Tofino in the north and Ucluelet in the south – where visitors base themselves. In the ocean park area, the archipelago of the Broken Group Islands lies at the heart of Barkley Sound, east of Ucluelet; it’s a hotspot for kayaking. One can enjoy its labyrinthine environs only by boat. Hikers head for the 10,130-acre West Coast Trail – a gorgeous world of unspoilt rainforest and remarkable beauty, it’s open between May and late September each year.
Wood Buffalo National Park
Spread over 11,070,000 acres across the spectacular wilderness of Alberta and the Northwest Territories lies Canada’s largest national park. A Unesco World Heritage Site, the park is an important IUCN conservancy space and one of the last bastions of the world’s remaining and endangered free-roaming wood bison. Visitors arrive in droves to marvel over the world’s largest beaver dam. The southern reaches of the park are home to one the world’s largest in-land freshwater deltas – the Peace-Athabasca Delta.
