Clearly, opportunities for vacations in the midst of natural surroundings abound in Canada. Those who want to get in touch with nature have a variety of options. Those who prefer seclusion may want to explore the icy wasteland of Auyuittuq National Park, which served as the backdrop for a key scene in the James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me. Arctic features such as glaciers and fjords are found here, though few animals are, since vegetation is also severely lacking. Another sparsely populated park is Sirmilik National Park. Its name means place of the glaciers, and it was only established as a park in 1999.

Those seeking more greenery have plenty of choices, such as La Mauricie National Park, where the forests have sprung back to fullness following a period of extensive logging in the 1800s. The woods contain a mix of deciduous trees and conifers, while the regions lakes number more than 150. Wildlife is abundant here, with such animals as black bears, otters and beavers frequently seen. The parks most unusual residents are its wood turtles, which are rarely found in Canada. Another lush area is Jasper National Park, which is the most expansive park in the Canadian Rockies. Named in honor of Jasper Hughes, a trading post operator in the area, the park attracts nearly 2 million visitors yearly. Mountains, lakes, waterfalls and rivers are all a part of Jaspers ecosystem, and it is home to many different species of animals, including the wolverine, bighorn sheep, hoary marmot, whitetailed deer and gray wolf.
Entirely different from most of the parks in the system is Grasslands National Park, which is situated in Saskatchewan and features dry mixedgrass short grass prairie. Established in 1981, this park is an area of both historical and scientific interest, since it once served as a refuge for the famed Sioux chief Sitting Bull and also is the site where the first dinosaur remnants in Canada were unearthed. Its array of native species include the prairie rattlesnake, blackfooted ferret, pronghorn antelope, burrowing owl and sage grouse. One of its most notable types of wildlife is the blacktailed prairie dog, as colonies of these burrowers are found nowhere else in Canada. Equally unusual is Mount Revelstoke National Park, which contains a portion of the only temperate inland rain forest in the world. Grizzly bears and mountain caribou are among its resident wildlife.