March - Visitor Experience

Live the “Parks Canada Experience” this summer!

As we celebrate one hundred years of protection, education and presentation, we are extending a special invitation to you to discover our national treasures through a wide variety of opportunities. Whether you are looking for an authentic and challenging experience or you just want to sit back and escape the stresses of everyday life, you will find something to suit your needs in our protected places.

2011 is a year to celebrate the past achievements of our organization, but it is also a year to demonstrate how those achievements have lead to innovative ways of providing experiences to our visitors. Parks Canada has developed exciting new and expanded programs, activities and services to appeal to a wide cross-section of Canadians. This month, we are presenting you (only!) some of them.

• One can never be too young to try mountain biking in our national parks
  © Parks Canada
  If you love to experiment nature in a different way and enjoy challenging yourself, try traction kiting in Gros Morne, Forillon, Riding Mountain, Pacific Rim or mountain biking in some new locations. Other new activities have recently been approved as well and some, including community gardens and guides-interpreted tours including zip lines, via ferrata and aerial parks, could soon be implemented in different locations. 
• You have a passion for history and sometimes wished you were born in other times? Don’t miss our Famous Forts Weekend in August. This celebration of Canada’s historic forts will be held across the country and will culminate with a 100-gun salute coast-to-coast! Spearheaded by the 300th anniversary of the construction of Fort Chambly in Quebec, the event promises to be a memorable one! 
• To create deep memories for your kids, take them to the reconstructed 18th century town of Louisbourg and let them participate in the Parks Canada Xplorers Program. This new program proposes a series of fun discovery activities to children and will be offered in 40 Parks Canada locations this summer. 
• In search of a theatrical experience? Feel the heartbeat of Acadia and the resilience of its people at Grand-Pré, immerse yourself in the ambiance that reigned in the homes of the French-Canadian bourgeoisie during the middle of the 19th century at Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier or let yourself be entertained by Mountain WIT, a group of professional actors who perform interpretive theatre that tell the stories of the Canadian Rockies in an interactive and fun way. 
• Most of us would not call sleeping outside and away from the comfort of our homes a vacation... Yet the feeling of being one with nature is unique and hard to describe. At Parks Canada, we want to help you live this experience in a way that best suits you. That’s why we are opening our “skies” to you by offering new types of accommodations in our national parks and national historic sites. Come discover our parks and stay for the night in our fully-equipped yurts (in Fundy, Forillon, Bruce Peninsula or Riding Mountain national parks), cottage tents (in Jasper) or tent trailers (in Forillon). But there’s more! Some of our national historic sites also become “bed and breakfast” at night! Imagine, you could be sleeping in Simon Fraser’s dwelling at Fort St. James this summer!

The cottage tents in Jasper National Park are a great way to experience camping
© Parks Canada

Everybody can enjoy the comfort of Parks Canada’s new types of accommodations
© Parks Canada