Gros Morne July 19th – July 22nd
Wednesday – We drove the 7 hours to Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of the Great Northern Penninsula of NL, construction delays costing us 90 minutes or more on the travel time. It was a lovely drive, we lamented about the lack of wildlife sightings, in particular, moose. You couldn’t swing a d*** c** (*it wouldn’t be polite to say dead cat) without hitting a sign warning of moose crossing or crash dangers of moose, etc. Some time later, I had drifted off when I was awoken by Mary’s shouts of “Moose!” and as my head popped up I looked to the right out the passenger window and there in the drainage ditch area, among bushes, partially hidden was a doe moose and as I looked, she turned and looked at us, and kept on chewing her food, unconcerned about our momentary presence. It was also too quick for there to be time to get a picture, you’ll have to take our words for it, we saw a moose, finally. In all fairness I have to point out I’ve had about 5 moose burgers over the last as many weeks, so maybe there’s a reason moose didn’t want to be seen near me?
Gros Morne is a large park with multiple camping sites and recreational areas, we were in Green Point. Benny and Karen were also going to be at Gros Morne (GM) but were in Berry Hill campground about 15km south of us. As usual on this journey it was raining when we arrived, a soft rain that slowed to a steady light drizzle and at least allowed us to set up without getting ourselves or the interior of the camper wet or worse, soaked. We dried out, ate a cold dinner since it was too rainy to cook (we can only cook outside the popup), and got ready for the next day.
Thursday we were meeting Benny and Karen at the Visitors center then going on to a park in GM called Tableland. There the earth’s mantle resides on the surface and it is a hostile place to most animal, plant and fungal life forms. When we met up, we learned they had a flat that AM and put on the spare but needed the flat fixed to have a spare again. It took less than an hour to take it to a garage where they fixed it and remounted it quickly. We were on our way to Tableland. It is like walking on the moon, or an alien world, the rocks and ground are a muted shade of orange and only a handful or two of plants can grow here, and in some cases moss as well. Tablelands has a lot of water, many streams and rivers of mostly snowmelt, flowing down the side of the valleys that adjoin the plateau. Glaciers carved the u-shaped valleys and plate tectonics caused the earth’s crust to crack and the mantle to push up to the surface. The mantle rocks are heavier than the surface rocks and make if very difficult for other life to survive (Google it!). It is a 4km hike round trip to the main river bisecting the plateau and back to the cars, the sun was blazing away that day, about 90 degrees and no shade in the barren Tablelands.
After our exertions a stop for lunch was in order and the Old Loft Restaurant in Bonne Bay provided the setting – a patio overlooking the bay, right on the water. As we dined the fog rolled in over the mountains in some stunning displays, then the mountains seemed to gather the fog and send it oozing down their slopes, to overwhelm the town, the harbor, and the straits between the island leading into the bay. Pictures can’t do it justice. All this happening across the bay and we were still in sunny conditions with temps in the low to mid 60’s, pleasant weather. After lunch we went back to Benny and Karen’s campsite and had a fire and watched the fire turn to embers before taking our leave for the evening.
Friday we, along with Benny and Karen, set out for more Gros Morne. We were scheduled for a boat trip on the fjord of Gros Morne, Western Brook Pond (in NL all bodies of water are ponds regardless of size). We arrived and were prepared for the 3km hike from the park site to the boat dock, a prerequisite for taking the boat tour. We ate a prepared lunch (i.e. picnic) beforehand, having arrived early to the docks. It was another day of blazing sun which was uncomfortable before the tour but almost no issue once out on the water with the wind in our faces. Having said that, the western side of Newfoundland and Labrador are known for it’s biting critters, and they love the taste of Mary. We also could not complain about the sunshine after all the days of rain. Western Brook Pond is a land-locked, fresh-water fjord with many waterfalls feeding it with snowmelt and spring-water sources, some 2,000’ high. Since it is land-locked, they are not “officially” fjords. The immense rock formations make us refer to them as fjords. The tour took us all the way to the “end” of the fjord, where we turned about and headed back. On the way we had to stop at a drop off point where experienced backpackers could be dropped off and retrieved. Hiking from here is arduous, requires carry-in all you need and carry-out all your waste, and have a satellite phone in case of emergency, etc. At this drop off point we picked up a man and ferried him back to the boat landing at the end of our tour. Allegedly the man was having difficulties and the guide called for help, and our boat helped.
After returning to shore and hiking the 3km back to our cars, we went back to our campsite and took Benny and Karen to the rock beach near our campsite for a walk and some rock-watching, looking for oddly colored or shaped rocks, just to marvel at in wonder. We overlooked the Gulf of St. Lawrence; visibility was good but fog and low clouds were gathering behind the headlands of the bay. Our camping neighbor was paddle boarding far out into the Gulf. When we commented she explained she was practicing for the Pan American games in Chili this Fall. Her name is Lina Augaitis – world champ in 2014. She will be competing in the inaugural standup paddling competition.
Scot, Mary, Benny, and Karen had a final dinner together and a nice fire despite the constant and gusting wind. After that night our paths would not cross again on this journey. We headed on to the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula of NL and then to Labrador and Quebec. Benny and Karen will spend more time in the Maritimes and Maine before making their way west again.H
This is really awesome!
The “View of the Rock Formations” pictures are amazing!
I hope you had a nice time!
Unfortunately, the pictures are very tiny 🙂
Hello,
Yes! I wish we could show how lovely and LARGE everything is in the picture. 🙁 Can’t wait to talk and hear how you’re doing.