Bald eagle

Ingonish is at the eastern entrance. Both villages get business from tourists because of the park.

There are many things that make the Cape Breton Highlands National Park special. First, Canada’s national parks are there to protect wilderness. Wilderness is the way land would be if people did not change it. The park has strict rules to make sure trees are not cut down and nothing is built there. The park has some of the last protected wilderness in Nova Scotia.

Black bear

What is being protected? For one thing, some of the oldest rock on earth can be seen in the Park. Much of the rock you see in the highlands was formed more than one billion years ago. In other parts of the world, these rocks have been buried by newer rocks. We can see them in the highlands because glaciers scraped them bare more than 10,000 years ago.

Wildlife is also protected in the park. Moose, lynx, snowshoe hares, martens, black bears, foxes, white-tailed deer, bobcats and unusual small animals like the star-nosed mole, all live there. The Park is also home to bald eagles, great blue herons and plants, such as lady slippers.