Must Do Canada

The Best Things to Do in Canada

National Parks

The BEST Canada National Parks for Camping

By Matthew G. Bailey 13 Comments

best Canada national parks for camping.

Camping is a perfect escape from our daily lives, allowing us to reconnect with nature and leave our worries behind. But with such a large variety of outdoor spaces to choose from, it’s hard to know where the best place is to pitch a tent.

Our Canada National Parks Camping Index has ranked Canada’s national parks, based on a detailed analysis of factors including the number of designated campgrounds, the number of designated hiking routes, Dark Sky preserves, annual rainfall, popularity, and their size, to provide a helpful guide to the best places to pitch up.

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Exploring Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan

By Matthew G. Bailey 7 Comments

badlands camping in Grasslands National Park

Having travelled across all of Canada, we’ve seen a lot of impressive national parks. From hiking mountains in Banff National Park to walking on the Earth’s mantle in Gros Morne National Park, there are so many incredible things to do in Canada from coast to coast to coast.

When I first looked into Grasslands National Park, I wasn’t sure what to think. For one, there are basically no trees and it’s small and relatively flat. It doesn’t have mountains or oceans or waterfalls. However, it’s the only national park dedicated to preserving prairie grasslands, is home to wildlife that can’t be found anywhere else in the country, and is the darkest Dark Sky Preserve in Canada. It’s also somewhat “off the beaten track”, which makes it very quiet compared to world-famous parks like Banff and Jasper.

So, we decided to include it in our 150-day Canada road trip back in 2017 and I’m so happy we did. Grasslands National Park is incredibly beautiful and has quickly become one of our favourite places to visit in Canada. in fact, we loved it so much that we went back in 2019, taking much more time to explore both the West Block and the East Block, which we’ll get into below. If you’re looking for beautiful wild-west-looking scenery, camping, and the chance to be in nature without all the crowds, make sure you add Grasslands National Park to your Canadian bucket list.

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Exploring Nahanni National Park, The Worlds First UNESCO World Heritage Site

By Matthew G. Bailey 2 Comments

Nahanni National Park

Words cannot describe the first moment we approached Nahanni National Park. Sitting aboard a floatplane, Ted Simpson, owner of Simpson Air, flew us up and over the massive, untouched park on one of his popular five-hour tours. We flew by jagged mountain peaks, numerous canyons, massive rivers, hot springs, and waterfalls. It was truly magical and had the weather been more cooperative, we could have gone even deeper.

We did land though, right next to Virginia Falls, which is twice the height of Niagara Falls. Here we met Parks Canada staff who brought us on a short hike to see the falls from different angles and to capture them with our drone. For those with more time, the trail also leads down towards the bottom portion of the river where you can witness the falls from below.

Nahanni National Park is absolutely massive. The park encompasses 30,000 square kilometres and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In fact, it’s the first UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is pretty incredible, considering there are now over 1,000 of them, all across the world. [Read more…] about Exploring Nahanni National Park, The Worlds First UNESCO World Heritage Site

Snowshoeing, Tubing and Magnificent Views at Mount Norquay

By Matthew G. Bailey 6 Comments

Situated in one of the most beautiful national parks in the world is Mount Norquay, an amazing mountain for skiing and snowboarding. Known as one of the mountains where olympians train, it’s also the closest and smallest ski area to the town of Banff.

But when most people think of Mount Norquay or with any of the mountains for that matter, thoughts of skiing and snowboarding are the only things that typically come to mind. That’s the only thing I ever thought about when visiting the area during the winter time…

Not anymore.

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Three Moose and a Mountain | Hiking Gros Morne, Newfoundland

By Matthew G. Bailey 1 Comment

Gros Morne National Park Hiking

It surprises me that after visiting Newfoundland more than a dozen times, I had never hiked their treasured UNESCO World Heritage site. When I look back though, I was never as adventurous as I am now. With a curiosity and passion to visit the most beautiful places on earth, it was without a doubt that I would hike Gros Morne National Park on my latest visit to the rock.

Located on the West coast of Newfoundland, Gros Morne is the provinces second tallest mountain, standing tall at 806 m. Created from eroded remnants of a mountain range formed more than 1.2 billion years ago, Gros Morne is an exquisite and rare example of continental drift, a process where deep ocean crust and the rocks of the earth’s mantle are exposed.

In other words, it’s gorgeous and educational.

Gros Morne Summit

We were lucky to arrive on a hot sunny day, something rare in this “neck of the woods”. After purchasing our park ticket and getting some great advice from one of the friendly park rangers, we headed to the base of Gros Morne mountain to prepare for our climb. We packed plenty of water, some protein bars, and fruit and of course, a good camera.

The beginning of the climb was nice and shady with the trail taking us over freshwater streams and plenty of vegetation. We also took the time to read some information signs, where we learned that …

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