Backwoods Blog .143

GROS MORNE

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Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Our trip to Newfoundland was basically divided into two parts; one week on the western side of the island at Gros Morne National Park and one week on the eastern side in the city of St. John’s and sites of interest on the Avalon Peninsula. You can only see so much in two weeks, but (thanks to Linda’s well-researched itinerary) we were going to give it our best shot and check off a good selection of “A-list” locations.

Gros Morne National Park (a Unesco World Heritage Site) is a rugged and varied landscape that took 485 million years for nature to create. Our first stop was at the Discovery Center to learn more about the park and pick up some maps. I’m no geologist, but after viewing some of the Discovery Center’s educational material I felt a little more informed and could hardly wait to explore the geological features of the park. Just down the road from Discovery Center was the Tablelands which was our first hike. The Tablelands is one of the few places on the planet where you can walk on the upper mantle of the earth’s crust. The vast and barren orange landscape resembles that of Mars. While the hike was of moderate difficulty, we encountered winds worthy of Newfoundland’s reputation. At the viewing platform trying to shoot video, it felt like we were in a wind tunnel!

The next day we took a boat tour of Western Brook Pond, a fresh water fjord carved out by glaciers from the ice age. It was a 45 minute hike from the parking lot to reach the boat dock. (This is the mass of land that cut off the original formation from the ocean making it a fresh water fjord.) When you look at travel brochures of Newfoundland and see Norway-like images of fjords, Western Brook Pond is where they were taken. This was one of the “must see” locations on our Newfoundland list and we did it! Green Gardens was also on the list, which ended up being one of the more demanding hikes of the trip. The hike starts on the north end of the Tablelands and heads towards the shoreline. Here’s a description of Green Gardens from Parks Canada Agency.

Green Gardens is a great place to discover some of the contrasting landscapes of Gros Morne National Park. The trail begins on the open serpentine barrens of the Tablelands and descends through boreal forest to a fertile volcanic sea coast. The coast is a wonderful array of sea stacks, coves, and beaches topped off with lush cliff-top meadows. One can easily spend many hours exploring along the shore, admiring the abundance of wildflowers in the area, or just lazing on the meadows staring out to sea.

Earlier this summer we purchased a drone, specifically for our Newfoundland trip (DJI Mini 3). Although we are still novice pilots, our goal was to shoot creative, yet cautious, shots of the trip. Since high winds and/or wet conditions are prohibitive for drones, I suppose Newfoundland is not the best place to take your drone, but that being said, that’s why we bought it. You will see a drone video of Newfoundland shoreline in today’s post. This footage was taken south of Green Gardens in Trout River just outside the park. (Drone flights are not allowed inside a Canadian National Park.) Next week we head to the eastern side of the island.

On the road

Dave

August 30, 2023