Mingan Archipelago National Park
The Mingan Archipelago is a Canadian national park located in the north of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. For a long time this virgin region was not familiar to tourists, but nowadays its popularity is increasing every year due to its rich flora and fauna, unusual landscapes.
The Mingan archipelago consists of 40 large islands and several hundred small granite islands, stretching for 150 km 3 km from the coast. There are many amazing caves and cliffs of various shapes on the islands. Such a landscape of archipelagos has been forming for more than a million years, constantly sinking and rising into the depths of the water. During the last ice Age, the islands were covered by a huge ice cap, more than 2 kilometers thick. Gradually, the glaciers melted, leaving the islands at a depth of 80 meters. Gradually, the islands rose and appeared on the surface about 7000 years ago. The limestone plateau quickly began to collapse, forming the amazing landscapes here.
In the southern part of the Mingan archipelago, you can find a system of arches and caves, which is of scientific interest, since they contain fossils of over 200 marine organisms. The northern part of the islands ends abruptly into the sea, forming cliffs up to 15 meters high.
In 1895, one of the islands of the Mingan archipelago was bought by the head of the chocolate production, Henry Mepier, and decided to populate this island with white-tailed deer to hunt them. Soon the herd has grown and now stands at 120 thousand heads. Besides the deer on the island. Gulls, terns, black finches, sparrows, and sandpipers can be noted among them, and ducks migrate here in winter. Of the representatives of the animal world, you can often find: foxes, bats, muskrats, otters, beavers, squirrels. There is a large amount of plankton and fish in the local waters, which attracts dolphins, seals, as well as 9 species of whales.
There are many peat and salt marshes and coniferous forests in the islands of the Mingan archipelago. 450 plant species grow in a comparatively small area of 150 km2, of which more than a hundred are endangered plants. Local plants have adapted to harsh living conditions - some are anchored like saxifrage on cracks in cliffs, others like sea Mertensia protect their leaves with pollen from sea salt and abundant sunlight.
More than 30,000 travelers visit the Mingan Archipelago every year. Using binoculars and a camera, tourists admire the stunning views of the rocks and many birds. Water lovers who can choose to sail on a yacht or kayak, or even explore the underwater beauties accompanied by an instructor, will not be left without a lot. For water walks, there are several routes with a length of more than 100 km, due to the short distances between the islands, you can kayak between them in good weather. There are campsites on 6 islands.
