Thousand Islands

Thousand Islands National Park protects a score of islands and several mainland enclaves on the stretch of the St Lawrence River between Kingston and Brockville, in south-eastern Ontario. Created in 1904, it is the oldest national park in Canada east of the Rockies and the smallest in the system. For more than a century it was called St Lawrence Islands National Park, and it took its present name in 2013.

Its interest lies not in its size but in its position. The park sits on the Frontenac Arch, a very ancient granite bridge that links the Canadian Shield of Algonquin with the Adirondack mountains of the United States and that crosses the St Lawrence at this point. That corridor brings together species from five different biological regions and makes the area the most biodiverse in Canada. The islands are rounded outcrops of granite polished by the glaciers, with pines clinging to bare rock, deciduous woodland on the flats and a fringe of wetlands and shallow bays.

That overlap of biological regions explains the abundance of reptiles and amphibians, one of the park's outstanding assets, and the presence of species at the northern limit of their range. Human occupation goes back some 10,000 years, when the first hunting and fishing peoples arrived after the last glaciation. Access to the islands is by boat, and Mallorytown Landing, on the shore, works as the gateway, with a launch ramp, exhibitions and interpretation; several islands have oTENTik accommodation.