Algonquin, La Mauricie and Cape Breton Highlands among world’s most colourful autumn walk spots

The Story

First signs of fall colour are starting to show across Canada, with leaves shifting hues and earlier sunsets in many regions, and a new international ranking is now spotlighting some of the country’s best options for long autumn walks.

The ranking comes from Icelandair, which analyzed autumn walking destinations worldwide to identify the most visually vibrant routes and landscapes. Instead of relying on a single measure of “fall foliage,” the study used five dominant colour palettes common to autumn scenes and evaluated each location for how closely it matched those tones.

According to the methodology, each destination was scored based on how well it aligned with autumn colour palettes, how diverse the shades were within the landscape, and the overall vibrancy of the colours. The result was a top list of renowned places for walking through peak seasonal scenery.

Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario ranked fourth overall, scoring 9.06 out of 10. The ranking highlights Algonquin’s well-known sugar maples and red maples, species associated with the park’s hallmark reds and other warm tones during fall.

Algonquin is described as the oldest provincial park in Ontario and the first provincial park in Canada, covering about 7,000 square kilometres. The same ranking material notes the park includes roughly 1,500 lakes and contains 14 designated hiking trails along with more than 2,000 canoe routes for visitors who want to combine walking and paddling.

The study also points to a relatively short window for peak colour in Algonquin. A cited reference indicates that parts of the park’s forests are already showing a “vibrant mix” of reds, oranges and yellows, suggesting the earlier stages of the season may arrive before many people expect.

La Mauricie National Park, near the Laurentian Mountains and the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, placed ninth in the worldwide list with a score of 8.78 out of 10. The park’s autumn identity is tied to maple forests expected to produce bright reds and oranges as leaves develop anthocyanins.

La Mauricie covers 536 square kilometres and is said to be home to 150 lakes and small ponds. The park is also described as heavily forested, with forests accounting for about 93 per cent of the area, and the most common species on sunny slopes include maple and yellow birch.

Hiking trails throughout La Mauricie are described as becoming especially vivid when fall arrives, with orange, red and yellow colours. The material also notes that experts recommend visiting in early October, when conditions are typically closest to peak colour for the season.

Rounding out the top 10, Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia ranked tenth with a score of 8.77 out of 10. The park was established in 1936 and spans about 950 square kilometres, with dramatic cliffs rising as high as roughly 300 metres above the Atlantic Ocean.

The walking highlights in Cape Breton Highlands include 26 hiking trails, including the Skyline Trail. The Skyline Trail is identified as a 6.5-kilometre route featuring a wooden boardwalk leading to a headland with wide-ranging views of the ocean.

The ranking also points to the Aspy Trail as another option for fall colour, particularly in late September and early October. It describes a mix of orange and yellow maple-covered hills, red blueberry fields, golden grasses and colourful ferns, with additional “pops” of autumn colour visible throughout the landscape.

For Canadians planning domestic trips to coincide with seasonal colour, the list offers a range of environments: Ontario’s extensive lake-and-maple setting, Quebec’s Laurentian-and–Saint Lawrence region, and Nova Scotia’s cliffside highlands above the Atlantic. Icelandair’s ranking also notes that Acadia National Park in Maine took the top spot and that Spain’s Irati Forest was among the other featured destinations, framing the Canadian parks as part of a broader global set of autumn walking landscapes.