Port au Choix National Historic Site

Newfoundland & Labrador


This site is dedicated to the ancient burial grounds of three different Indigenous groups that date back 5500 years. The modern visitors center tells of creative survival in this rough area and of one group's unexplained disappearance 3200 years ago. Several good trails around the park let you explore further. Reached by walking, Phillip's Garden, a site with vestiges of Paleo-Eskimo houses, is a highlight.

Two trails go to Phillip's Garden. One is the Phillip's Garden Coastal Trail (4km), which leaves from Phillip Dr at the end of town. From here you hopscotch your way over the jigsaw of skeletal rock to the site 1km away.

If you continue, it's another 3km to the Point Riche Lighthouse (1871), also accessible via the visitors-center road.

Another way to Phillip's Garden is the Dorset Trail (8km). It leaves the visitors center and winds across the barrens past stunted trees, passing a Dorset Paleo-Eskimo burial cave before finally reaching the site and linking to the Coastal Trail.

A local herd of caribou can often be spotted grazing around all of the above trails.