Avalon Wilderness Reserve

Newfoundland Wilderness Reserve Of About 1,070 Square Kilometres In The Interior Of The Avalon Peninsula; Protects One Of The Most Southerly Woodland Caribou Herds In The World, On Open Barrens Within An Hour Of St John'S · Holyrood, Newfoundland and Labrador

An hour from St John's, behind the settled coast of the Avalon Peninsula, the land opens into a thousand square kilometres of BARRENS - treeless rolling country of bog, rock, pond and low heath that looks far more like Labrador than like anywhere else this far south. The reserve protects about one thousand and seventy square kilometres of it, AND THE HERD THAT LIVES ON IT IS ONE OF THE MOST SOUTHERLY WOODLAND CARIBOU POPULATIONS IN THE WORLD - animals at a latitude closer to Paris than to the Arctic, surviving because the Avalon's cool oceanic barrens mimic conditions found much further north. The herd crashed badly and has been intensively managed since. THERE ARE NO FACILITIES, NO MARKED TRAILS AND NO SERVICES: this is a wilderness reserve rather than a park, entry requires a permit, and the weather on open barrens with no shelter is the thing that catches people out.

Interior of the southern Avalon Peninsula, eastern Newfoundland, Holyrood, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

A WILDERNESS RESERVE, NOT A PARK - THERE IS NO GATE, NO VISITOR CENTRE, NO MARKED TRAIL AND NO SERVICES. A PERMIT IS REQUIRED FOR ENTRY and is obtained from the provincial Parks and Natural Areas Division; the permit system exists partly to protect the caribou herd and partly so somebody knows you are in there. THE PRACTICAL SEASON IS ROUGHLY LATE JUNE TO EARLY OCTOBER; outside that the barrens are exposed, wet and genuinely dangerous in bad weather. THERE ARE NO MARKED ROUTES - navigation is by map, compass and GPS across open ground with very few landmarks, and FOG ON THE AVALON BARRENS IS FREQUENT AND DISORIENTING. Access is from roads around the reserve's edge. Hunting and snaring are restricted. Confirm current permit arrangements before travelling.

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