The grandest, greatest, rawest landscape in subarctic eastern Canada is exhilarating, occasionally intimidating, and always awe-inspiring. Gros Morne National Park has it all: mountains, headlands, fjord valleys, glacial lakes, wave-carved cliffs, pristine waters, arctic-alpine barrens, and more.

Cutting into the western base of the Northern Peninsula, Bonne Bay virtually splits the park in two. The north and south landscapes differ drastically: the north is dominated by the Long Range Mountains, which rise to the east and by picturesque cobble or sandy beaches that line the coastline to the west. The south is dominated by the fjord of Bonne Bay and the otherworldly region known as the tablelands. This dry, brown region of cliffs and boulders is formed of an igneous rock usually found in the Earth’s mantle, which was thrust upward by plate tectonic. The high concentration of heavy metals in the peridotite rock impedes most growth, but campion moss and pitcher plants grow in isolated profusion.