Immortalized on canvas by the Group of Seven, this remote and beautiful park sits on the rugged Coldwell Peninsula which juts into Lake Superior from the north shore. The rocky landscape has been shaped by eons of erosion and several glacial ages. In some places, the hard, granite rock has been gnarled into fantastic shapes, while elsewhere the turbulent lake waters have carved potholes in the bedrock.

The park is home to a small herd of woodland caribou, among the last of their kind to roam the region. Other wildlife include moose, bears, wolves, foxes, deer, ruffed grouse, loons and great blue herons.
In the drier areas of the park, the forest is dominated by white spruce, red pine, balsam fir, white birch and trembling aspen. Stands of black spruce, larch and white cedar grow near wetter areas. Lake Superior's cold waters provide a suitable habitat for sub-Arctic plants such as crowberry, billberry, and encrusted saxifrage that grow on the north shore.
Archaeological evidence indicates that humans arrived here to hunt and fish about 4000 years ago. The French built a fur-trading post in the 17th century, followed by a Hudson's Bay Company fort. More recently, the remoteness of the peninsula prompted the Canadian government to build a German prisoner-of-war camp here during World War II.