National Treasures Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The first national park to be established by the Canadian federal government was Rocky Mountains National Park in 1887. It began as the Banff Hot Springs Reserve in 1885 before being expanded as a national park two years later. It was fixed in size and renamed Banff National Park on May 30, 1930 when the National Parks Act was passed by Parliament.

New national parks and national park reserves continue to be established, with more than 45 created since the inception of national parks in Canada. For those included in this quiz, here is some more information, provincially from west to east, then the territories from east to west:

British Columbia
Yoho National Park - established in 1886, located in southeast BC, adjacent to Kootenay National Park to the south and Banff National Park to the east. It is 1,313 square km of the Rocky Mountains, along the western slope of the continental divide. "Yoho" is a Cree expression of amazement or awe.

Alberta
Jasper National Park - originally "Jasper Forest Park" in 1907, then converted to a national park in 1930. Located north of Banff and east of the city of Edmonton, Jasper National Park is a whopping 11,000 square km, and includes the Columbia Icefield amongst its amazing scenery. The park was named for Jasper Haws, a Maryland-born fur trader who worked for the North West Company.

Saskatchewan
Grasslands National Park - Saskatchewan's second national park was established in 1981. Located along the US border in the southwest part of the province, Grasslands is divided into two blocks 166 km apart, and together have an area of 907 square km.

Manitoba
Riding Mountain National Park - established in 1933, Manitoba's first national park sits in the western part of the province in the Manitoba Escarpment. A protected biosphere reserve since 1986, Riding Mountain has three distinct ecosystems - grasslands, upland boreal and eastern deciduous forests.

Ontario
Thousand Islands National Park - originally founded in 1903 as the St. Lawrence Islands National Park, its name was changed in 2013. Comprised of 21 islands and a number of smaller islets in the St. Lawrence River, the Thousand Islands National Park is one of Canada's smallest with a total area of 24.4 square km.

Quebec
Forillon National Park - Quebec's first national park was established in 1970, covering 244 square km at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in the southeast corner of the province. Part of the Appalachians, this coastal region includes a breathtaking mix of forests, salt marshes, sand dunes, and cliffs.

New Brunswick
Fundy National Park - situated along the Goose Bay in the larger Bay of Fundy, Fundy National Park, established in 1950, is 207 square km in area and not only boasts the highest tides in the world, but also rises from the coast up to the Canadian Highlands and has more that 25 waterfalls!

Nova Scotia
Cape Breton Highlands National Park - located on the northern part of Cape Breton Island, this was the first national park established in the maritime provinces, in 1936. Covering an area of 949 square km, the Cape Breton Highlands National Park includes mountains, valleys, waterfalls, rocky coastlines and the highest point in Nova Scotia - White Hill.

Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island National Park - is 27 square km stretched along 60 km of PEI's north coast, protecting beach and both fresh and saltwater marsh ecosystems. Established in 1937 and expanded in 1998 to include a former provincial park, PEI National Park also includes the fabled Green Gables, the inspiration for "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Newfoundland & Labrador
Gros Morne National Park - established as a national park reserve in 1973, it gained full national park status in 2005. Encompassing an area of 1,805 square km, Gros Morne National Park is in the Long Range Mountains along Newfoundland's western coast. It is a unique area where deep ocean crust and the rocks of the earth's mantle lie exposed, dated at more than 1.2 billion years old.

Nunavut
Auyuittuq National Park - originally known as Baffin Island National Park when it was established in 1972 as a national park reserve, it was renamed Auyuittuq in 1976, which translates as "the land that never melts." This 21,470 square km park is located on Baffin Island's Cumberland Peninsula, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut. It was upgraded to full national park status in the year 2000.

Northwest Territories
Wood Buffalo National Park - this park actually straddles the border between the NWT and Alberta, with an area of 44,741 square km, making it the largest national park in Canada. It was established in 1922, with the goal of preserving the world's largest herd of free-roaming wood bison.

Yukon
Vuntut National Park - this 4,345 square km park is located in the northern part of the Yukon, and was created in 1995 in conjunction with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. This remote national park is difficult to reach, despite being open all year round, and typically gets an average of 25 visitors per year.

The other provincial parks listed in the quiz each represent one of ten provinces: Golden Ears (BC), Ram Falls (AB), Echo Valley (SK), Whitesell (MB), Algonquin (ON), Gaspésie (QC), Sugarloaf (NB), Amherst Shore (NS), Red Point (PE), Blow Me Down (NL).