Guide
The provincial parks, measured
ParksNL’s parks are this site’s favourite kind of fact: mapped, bounded, run by an authority with a published calendar, and almost always exactly where a long drive wants a pause. Twelve of them sit on measured routes already — from Jonathan’s Pond minutes off the Gander runway to Cheeseman’s dunes at the island’s sea door — and every one above cites its element and names its drive.
The pattern worth noticing: the parks trace the island’s road logic. Where the Trans-Canada carries three routes at once, Notre Dame serves them all; where a peninsula runs long — Baie Verte, the Burin, the Great Northern — a park sits two-thirds up like a deliberate breath. The system was designed by people who drove these distances. This site just measures the agreement.
Where to go, and how to get there
Jonathan's Pond Provincial Park
The closest ParksNL campground to the Gander door — on the Fogo and Change Islands road, which makes it the natural first or last night for a ferry-chasing trip.
YQX → Fogo Island — 1h 21m, 86.3 km, then a ferry
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Notre Dame Provincial Park
The Trans-Canada campground west of Gander that three measured drives pass — Lewisporte, St. Alban's and Harbour Breton all carry it as their honest overnight.
YQX → Lewisporte — 53 min, 63 km
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Dildo Run Provincial Park
The campground in the tickles on the Twillingate causeway road — island-studded water on both sides, and the nearest mapped camping to Boyd's Cove and the archipelago's trails.
YQX → Twillingate — 1h 48m, 113.8 km
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Eastport North Arm Provincial Park
Behind Eastport's sand on Bonavista Bay's north arm — the beach-country park where the St. Brendan's ferry road and the Salvage headlands share a base.
YQX → St. Brendan's — 1h 19m, 94.3 km, then a ferry
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Lockston Path Provincial Park
The Bonavista peninsula's campground, in the woods above Port Rexton — the overnight that turns the cape, Trinity and the Skerwink into one unhurried loop.
YQX → Cape Bonavista — 3h 45m, 247.8 km
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Dungeon Provincial Park
Day-use drama at the cape: a collapsed sea cave with two arches, longhorn cattle grazing the headland, and the Bonavista lighthouse minutes on. The name undersells nothing.
YQX → Cape Bonavista — 3h 45m, 247.8 km
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Flatwater Pond Provincial Park
The pond-side park on Route 410 up the Baie Verte Peninsula — the pause both the Baie Verte and La Scie drives earn on the long climb north.
YDF → Baie Verte — 2h 16m, 159.3 km
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Pistolet Bay Provincial Park
The campground near the island's northern tip — the mapped overnight that puts L'Anse aux Meadows' sod halls fifteen minutes from your tent.
YDF → L'Anse aux Meadows — 5h 51m, 436.4 km
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
The Arches Provincial Park
Sea-carved limestone right off Route 430's shoulder — day use, ten minutes, photographs like an hour.
YDF → Port au Choix — 3h 3m, 235.9 km
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Codroy Valley Provincial Park
The reserve on the Grand Codroy estuary — the west coast's great bird wetland, with the Long Range walking into the sea behind it.
YDF → Port aux Basques — 3h 28m, 270.9 km, then a ferry
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park
Sand beach, dune boardwalk and piping plover shore minutes before Port aux Basques — the last pitch before the ferry, and the first after it.
YDF → Port aux Basques — 3h 28m, 270.9 km, then a ferry
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Frenchman's Cove Provincial Park
The barachois-beach campground two-thirds down the Burin — the honest overnight on the long road to Fortune and the France ferry.
YQX → Fortune — 5h 28m, 378.5 km, then a ferry
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Before you go
These change. We link the people who keep them current rather than copying numbers that go stale here.
Seasons, sites and feesParksNL declares each park's dates annually
Which parks operate, when gates open and what a night costs are ParksNL's to publish and this page's to link, never to mirror. One park in these routes' prose — Glenwood — wears the name without being ParksNL's; its page says so.
Check it now →
Questions people actually ask
Are these all of Newfoundland's provincial parks?＋
No — these are the twelve that sit on drives this site has measured so far, cited from the map like everything else here. As routes extend (the Avalon is coming), the list grows; ParksNL's own site holds the full roster.
Which is the best first-night park from each airport?＋
From Gander, Jonathan's Pond — minutes up the Fogo road, so a late landing still makes camp in daylight. From Deer Lake there is no ParksNL gate quite so close; Gros Morne's federal campgrounds an hour north usually take that role, and the measured Gros Morne route carries them.
Can I camp at all of them?＋
Most, not all: The Arches and Dungeon are day-use drama rather than overnights, and Codroy Valley is a reserve to stand in rather than sleep in. Each blurb says which; ParksNL's calendar says when.
Every figure on this page was checked against its source on September 5, 2026.