The Viking explorer who reached North America was Leif Erikson. Around the year 1000 AD, Erikson is believed to have landed on the shores of what is now Newfoundland, Canada, at a place he named Vinland, due to the presence of wild grapes there. This journey is documented in several Norse sagas, including the "Saga of the Greenlanders." Leif Erikson's expeditions represent some of the earliest known European exploration of the North American continent, predating Christopher Columbus by nearly 500 years.