Your Picks for Parks Canada's 100th birthday

By CBC News

Parks Canada is marking its 100th birthday this summer, with a series of events to celebrate its role as the caretaker of some of the most spectacular and expansive national parks on the planet.

To help celebrate this milestone, CBC News is asking which of the country's 42 national parks is your favourite and why.

Answers have come in on our website, via Twitter, and by email along with stunning photos.

And if one thing has become clear, it's that Canadians feel passionately about their parks!

"My favourite national park is Pacific Rim National Park," wrote northvanlass. "Its grandeur and natural beauty are unsurpassed. The wind-blown trees, the awesome ferociousness of the waves crashing in, hiking the West Coast Trail, it's all magical."

"As a child I was extremely fortunate to have spent many, many summers at our cabin on Lake Edith in Jasper National Park," declared MANCOUVERR. "I regret now that at the time I did not savour enough every beautiful moment of this experience."

"Gros Morne National Park," answered Colton Blake. "Terrifyingly beautiful."

"Auyuittuq," offered dmfinch, for its "amazing scenery, good hiking," and "glaciers, waterfalls, bizarre geography and comfortable camping on moss."

"My heart still resides in Cape Breton Highlands National Park," answered Ecodreamer. "Various whales, eagles and the entertaining northern gannet delight the visitors that spend some time at the many look-offs along the way. Plus there are sandy beaches that in the summer turn into a tropical paradise with the ocean being warm enough to play in the waves or float in the swell to allow all your troubles to drift away."

"St. Lawrence Islands National Park," responded solus909. "The 1000 Islands are just so incredibly beautiful and unique. The campsites are on a dozen or so small islands scattered between Kingston and Brockville.

"Often the really great part is the people you meet doing the same thing. We still keep in touch with families from Long Island and Montreal that we met ten years ago, and my son married one of their daughters."

Other parks mentioned as favourites include:

• "Nahanni." - NotProUnion
• "Waterton..Nuff said." - darc.one
• "I like Waskesiu myself.....just north of Prince Albert, Sask."- Soundingboard39
• "Point Pelee, a must for every birder in the world during migrations." - Auden Gray
• "Kluane, Yukon." - Prairie_Gal

Some community members, such as CBCfanzine, couldn't choose just one:

""Banff. Hands down. Having said that, here are others that I think are close 2nds, going East to West...."

And some, like notnecessarily, couldn't choose at all!

"How could anyone choose? Each unique in its own right and all part of a whole, we Canadians have a responsibility to nurture and protect them all."

What is your choice?

We'll be collecting your stories throughout the summer and using them in an interactive map to share them with other Canadians.

For inspiration, there's a gallery of professional shots from our national parks in our feature on a new book: Canada's National Parks: A Celebration.

CBC News has created an interactive map showing all of Canada's national parks. The Parks Canada website also has a complete list of them.

How to participate:

Send your stories, photos and videos to: yournews@cbc.ca.

You can also upload photos to our CBC Community photo gallery or to our Flickr group, or upload videos here.

We look forward to seeing your submissions!

Related links:

• Parks Canada: Are you heading to "Learn to Camp"?