Gros Morne National Park and Rocky Harbour - August 21 - 25th

Goodbye Happy Adventure and Hello Rocky Harbour! 

We got up at 7 am, again later than usual. Tired I guess, and still working on the time change. After packing up our things, we spent an hour on our computers waiting to go down to breakfast at our assigned time of 8:30. A much brighter day this morning. It's going to be over a 5 hour drive to the west side of Newfoundland. 

I ate a small breakfast and Ray ordered scrambled eggs and sausages.

After fuelling up we headed out at 9:30 am. The Trans Canada Highway is in much better shape than I expected. Very few potholes and very little construction. Apparently the construction completed earlier in the summer. 

It poured rain off and on for the first 2 hours of the drive. The highway is double lane until Gander and then single lane with lots of passing lanes periodically. I cruised at 110 km most of the way with very little traffic. The sun came out halfway into the drive and it's a balmy 22C to 24C  for the rest of the drive. 

Other than stopping at a Visitor Center to use the washroom and stretch our legs and another fuel stop, we drove straight through to Deer Lake. We ate lunch at Mary Brown's Chicken (We'd been told by various people to always have at least half a tank of fuel in case of stoppages on the highway for hours.)

Fuel stop had this awesome 442 Barracuda.

It's a good thing we stopped for lunch and a bathroom break, as we were stopped for 20 to 30 minutes with road construction from Deer Lake to Rocky Harbour. We finally arrived just before 4 pm. A rather long day.

The Candlelight Inn is a restored Salvation Army Church that isturned into a B & B. Very cute and well appointed. They also have free laundry for guests. Yay! That lamp post in the background is Rocky Harbour's street lighting.

We walked around stretching our legs. There is an old cemetary between the Inn and the beach that you walk beside to access the beach. They also have a firepit outside and a shed to sit in to view the water out of the wind and rain. Gorgeous view of Rocky Harbour.

The permanent residents were quiet. lol The Green building is the B & B.

Our room.

Communal Kitchen. Lots of breakfast items available. You can even make yourself a sandwich to pack hiking. April our host.

The beach below us, has really cool rock formations.

First thing I did is get our laundry going after another guest finished. We went out for dinner late at 7:15pm to Earl's and ordered a takeout pizza. All the restaurants looked really busy. It took over 30 minutes to get our pizza. Oh well, we took it back to our room and that's our night.

One of the houses next door to the B & B is really airing out his cod filets on his clothesline! I expected laundry here, not fish. lol

Over the next couple of days, Ray took these pictures of Rocky Harbour.

Saturday morning, up at 6:30 am. The communal kitchen area has coffee on. We obviously the first people up until 7:30 lol They have the makings for waffles, cereal, granola and porridge as well as fruit. Definitely set up for the hiking crowd. After I ate cereal and Ray his Arrowroot Cookies, we headed out by 9am.

As the forecast is for sunny skies today, we decided to go to the Gros Morne Discovery Center and hike the Tablelands. We made a quick stop at the Discovery Center and saw that there was a whole bus tour coming, so we decided to head out and visit the Discovery Center later.

The Tablelands:

Half a billion years in the making – formed deep in the middle layer of the Earth, in the mantle. It was thrust up as ancient continents collided, building the Appalachian Mountain chain and assembling a supercontinent called Pangea!

More that 400 million years of those towering mountains eroding were needed to reveal what we see today: a surreal barren, orange landscape -- the Earth's inner soul: the mantle - exposed to you the way few have seen it.

Easy 4-km (2.5 mi) return trail along an old roadbed ending at Winter House Brook Canyon. The trail started off from the parking lot with a gentle incline for a 1 km before flattening out with a slight downhill to the viewpoint. Took us 90 minutes or so to do this hike. This is a drone picture that came up in my facebook feed. This is from much higher up than the trail goes. Gorgeous.

What was really interesting when you first started the hike and turned backwards facing the parking lot, was that, the mountainside on the right was all green and forested. The mountainside on the left all brown rock. 

Still a little snow visable.

This "scaley rock" is called Serpertinite Rock.

Who knew!

Travertine in the Gros Morne Tablelands forms when underground water reacts with exposed mantle rock in a chemical process called serpentinization.

How the Process Works

Rainwater seeps in: Rain and melted snow soak into cracks in the orange-brown peridotite rock, which is a rare piece of the Earth's upper mantle pushed to the surface. 
Rocks change: Underground, the water reacts with the minerals in the rock. This changes the peridotite into a new rock called serpentinite and releases high levels of calcium into the water. 
Springs bubble up: This calcium-rich, highly alkaline water travels through fissures and flows out onto the surface as cold springs in areas like Winter House Canyon and Wallace Brook.
Travertine hardens: When the underground water reaches the air, the dissolved calcium reacts with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This causes calcium carbonate to drop out of the water, hardening into crusts of white or gray travertine sediment where the springs discharge.

 

Looking back towards the beginning of the trail.

Looking up the valley.

Plants really struggle on the tablelands as the dirt/rocks are full of minerals and quite toxic to most vegetation. (Screen shots from their website)  

It's amazing how some of these plants look like the cultivated ones we buy for our gardens now. They even have a plant called the Pitcher Plant that is carnivorous. The tour guide showed some people we met what they eat by piping out some stuff in the center of the bloom, lots of bugs.

The purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) is a carnivorous plant and the official provincial flower of Newfoundland and Labrador. Designated in 1954, it features a deep, water-filled tubular leaf design that traps and digests insects to survive in harsh, nutrient-poor bog environments.

Pictures from Google as Ray's picture turned out fuzzy. lol

The land certainly looked "other worldly". We also noticed that the forests of Gros Morne do not look very healthy with alot of dead trees. Apparently, the dead and grey-looking trees in Gros Morne National Park are caused by an active outbreak of the native spruce budworm, a small moth whose caterpillars eat the needles off balsam fir and spruce trees. Good thing they are wet here most of the year as I'm sure it would be a big fire hazard otherwise

Good thing we got started early as the parking lot was full when we got back down. More bus tours I  suspect. Once down and we drove further to the little community of Trout River and had lunch at this cute cafe called Seaside Restaurant. Delicious scallops and mussels. A cute little community with lots of summer rentals as they have a beautiful beach.

They had the funniest beer available here!

Back in the car towards the Gros Morne Discovery Center.  Lots of information regarding the geology of the park. I only took one picture of caribou antlers. They have 2 paddles in front of the horns unlike moose.

We took this picture on the way back to Rocky Harbour. You can definitely see the green side and the brown side with the road splitting it.

We've been finding out that most businesses, lodging and eating here on the west coast, close for the winter. Everyone goes back home, mostly from Ontario. The few people who stay for the winter have to be pretty self-sufficient.

A few stops on the way home for some pictures and that was our day. 

Sunday, Western Brook Pond Boat Tour.  Sure glad we got there early to the parking lot (8:30 am) and got on the first shuttle for the 3km trail to the boat. Although the 2 shuttles, golf carts that hold 6 people, run back and forth frequently, it would take some time before everyone got there. Of course once we got there and picked up our ticket for the golf cart, 2 tour buses arrived! We got to the boat in about 10 minutes that would have taken 45 minutes walking.

A picture of the bog from the golf cart. The split between the two mountains is Western Brook Pond. This is only half way down the trail. Look how far the mountains are between this picture and the next one when we arrived at the dock. Yes it is a long walk.

Being that we were first there and to the dock, we managed to get up top on the boat in front of the captain so no one could get in front of us spoiling Ray's pictures. lol At 10:00 am we took off for our 2 hour tour.

Our greeter.

Ray and John, elbows up lol So no one could cut in front of us. His wife is named Debbie too. As it turned out, this was necessary as when John left his seat to go to the bathroom, a lady promptly took the seat next to his wife within seconds. When he got back he said it was his seat and she said "does it have your name on it"!  He told her to move more sternly as it was his seat. She finally moved. Wow, she's very pushy, but did move after he swore at her. Everyone else around us was very polite and took turns for pictures etc.

The first 3 pictures are from google as you needed a drone to take them. They have 3 boats on this pond. One was brought in over the bog by dragging it over the ice and snow and the other two were flown in by a huge helicopter out of Halifax to not damage any of the bog. Pretty impressive. They have a boat house on the pond in the next cove where the boats were assembled and they store them there for the winter.

This is the boat we went on. 

They call this fiord a "pond" but to me it's a huge lake. Gros Morne's ancient landscape is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The pond is 17km/10miles long.

Geological Timeline

25,000 to 10,000 years ago: Massive glaciers carved the deep U-shaped trench well below sea level, creating a saltwater fjord connected to the ocean.
Around 10,000 years ago: The immense weight of the ice disappeared, causing the earth's crust to rebound and raise the coastal lowlands above sea level.
Post-cutoff transition: The ocean outlet closed, and incoming rain, snowmelt, and stream water gradually flushed out all the salt over thousands of years to create a pristine freshwater lake.

Futher below are pictures taken from hikers that got let off at the end of the pond where they hike from here to Gros Morne Mountain, about a 3 to 5 day hike bushwacking as their is not real trail. The hikers have to go through an orientation first to make sure they know how to use a compass and map so they don't get lost! Definitely not for us! The next two days is nothing but rain in the forecast too.

The distance from the gorge at the end of Western Brook Pond to the Gros Morne Mountain trailhead is 35 kilometers (22 miles) along the Long Range Traverse.

Route Details

Type: Strenuous, unmarked backcountry route.
Duration: Typically takes 3 to 5 days to complete.
Access: Requires taking a boat tour across Western Brook Pond to reach the gorge at the back end.
Requirements: Wilderness navigation skills, backcountry experience, physical fitness, and a mandatory Parks Canada permit/safety briefing.

The Long Range Traverse is an unmarked and rugged backcountry route. the traverse starts by climbing onto the Long Range plateau through the rugged gorge at the east end of Western Brook Pond. The route heads south across the Long Range plateau towards Gros Morne Mountain before descending into Ferry Gulch. It then returns to Highway 430 by way of the Gros Morne Mountain trail. Along the way a series of five campsites provide waypoints that help define the route.

Here's our pictures. (Mostly Ray's lol)

 

Off we go.

These cliffs are over 2000 feet high, higher than the CN Tower.

Hanging Valley from another glacier thousands of years ago.

See the Old man face?

Just a trickle now but must be stupendous in the rains.

The end of the lake where the hikers get off. Two on our boat, but a skiff left earlier with a boat load.

They climb way up there!

Woody Falls

Woody Gulch

There is approximately 400 caribou in Gros Morne Park in the winter. They come down Woody Gulch when there is ice and snow, swim the pondor over the ice to the other side and then climb up on to the flatlands on top to have there young.

In comparison there are 2300 moose in Gros Morne, an introduced species. Two were released in 1878 but didn't reproduce so in 1904 four more were released. Now there are 2 moose for every square kilometer in Newfoundland. No wonder all the vegetation is suffering, they each eat 50 pounds a day.

To give some idea how big this "pond" is ...here is a picture of the other boat starting their tour. Probably 1.5 km away from our boat going down the other side.

Zoomed in ...

In this picture below, you can see a huge "dip" in the rock face. They do not get many rock slides here.

A massive cliff collapse and rock slide at Western Brook Pond occurred in October 1911, generating a huge wave and sweeping away debris and trees.

• The Event: Eyewitness accounts report that a large slab of rock near "Broke-Off Cliff" plummeted into the deep fjord-like pond.
The Wave: The impact created a massive displacement wave (sometimes described locally as a 30-metre or 100-foot tsunami-like wave) that surged across the water.
The Debris: The wave carried away surrounding trees and left a visible trimline on the opposite side of the cliffs where vegetation was destroyed.

Once we came back out of the fiord, the crew put on Newfie music and everyone was toe tapping. This crew member was really good on the spoons.

We were so lucky that it was a beautiful warm morning with no wind for our trip. There were a lot of biting bugs though if you stood in one place too long. Fortunately the other Debbie had bug spray andsprayed us down.

The clouds started coming in after we got back to the dock.

We decided to drive a little further north to Cow Head and Ray was able to get his perfect shots of a fish boat harbour and lobster traps. The other reason was we need to get the pictures while the weather is good. The forecast for the next two days after this is rain. :)

I think it's been awhile since these traps were used. 

All over Newfoundland, there is a lot of their hydro poles supported with rock cribbing as the boggy ground is so wet.

The pink fireweed has exploded everywhere at this time of year.

After that we drove into the town and found a cute motel with a restaurant so ate lunch there. It was delicious, the portions were huge. I had lunch and Ray had dinner of pan fried cod with all the fixin's, fresh bun, dessert and tea, all for $30.00. Best deal yet!

On the way back from Cow Head, we stopped at some viewpoints and took some pictures.

Broom Point

I even found a patch of cloud berries which are edible.

Old winch to haul up boats etc. into the small channel. Although it is really rusty it looks to be operational still.

Next stop Wreck of the SS Ethie. Debris still spread up and down the beach.

The S.S. Ethie was a 439-tonne coastal steamship that ran aground during a fierce blizzard at Martin's Point, Newfoundland, on December 11, 1919. Miraculously, all 92 passengers and crew were rescued safely using a rope chair, including an 18-month-old baby famously sent ashore inside a mailbag.

I suspect this rock 1.5 miles out was the cause of the shipwreck. It is so far from shore I had to zoom in to see what it was with the waves breaking over it. At first I thought it might be a whale.

A nice spot to relax watching the waterfront.

Last stop, Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse. There were 2 tour buses (the same two from the boat tour) there so we didn't stay long.

Back in Rocky Harbour we went for a Skor Blizzard from Earles and settled into the adirondak chairs to eat them looking at the view.

As we didn't finish lunch until 2:30 pm that was our dinner :)

Monday morning, Ray woke up with a cold. Yuck. He has felt it come on for a couple of days but it "smacked him" last night. Today is a "down day", pictures to fix and a little more laundry. After going full wack for 6 days it's nice not to have to go anywhere. Ray made me waffles for breakfast as they have a waffle iron here and mix made up in the fridge.

The rest of the day we were on our computers until 4, we went out for dinner in Norris Point at Chantrelles. Most other restaurants down that way are closed as it's Monday. The rain had stopped and the skies cleared somewhat.

Back at home apparently the Colibabas have been having a fabulous time with family at our house for Steve's birthday. Not missing us a bit! (pictures from Steve)

Steve even managed to catch a fish in our lake which Ray has had great trouble achieving! Steve will have to take Ray out in our boat next year and show him how he did it. :)

Of course instead of rain, they are now getting beautiful days with sunshine. Must be hot if Dianne's in the water. lol

Norris Point

We left an hour early for dinner and stopped at a viewpoint to take a few pictures. Norris Point looking across towards the Tablelands and Woody Point.

Great evening shot of the Tablelands.

Further down the hill is the Cat Stop Waterfront Pub which is also the ferry terminal to go across to Woody Point. We drove around as you needed a car to get to the Tablelands.

Across the street is the Bonne Bay Marine Station.

On the dock some kids and one guy were fishing for Mackerel. One boy told me he had caught 20 so far. They must have been throwing some back as there was a fish frenzie down below the dock.

And yes, there are definitely lobster here in the waters. There were two of them that I saw.

Time to head up the hill for our dinner at Chanterelles. They have beautiful stained glass windows. I would love to have one of these in our house ... but where????

Dinner was fabulous. Ray ordered duck and I the beef rib steak. Melt in your mouth dishes.

That was our "big expensive meal" for the next few days. We will be back to "Pub food" lol

Tuesday, we woke up to pouring rain all morning so we hunkered down. At 1pm the rain had mostly stopped, so we figured to get out for a bit and look inside some of the shops before having a late lunch. In one shop the rain teamed down again for 10 minutes. Good thing we were already inside as our raincoats were in the car. lol

We stopped at various "little stores" and found a couple of things to buy, especially a light ball cap for me as I only brought my wool one and it's been really hot here.

In the General Store Ray found a friend. lol

Most of the stores had the same stuff, Gros Morne sweatshirts and t-shirts, but this one was very unique. We could have bought a ton, if we had the money and the space! They had such beautiful stained glass work and blown glass stuff.

How about this for an icefishing shack! One panel missing in the back of the roof for your stove.

Time for lunch. We got into Earles just before two more groups came in behind us. We were able to order our fish and chips, but the next group were told the fryers were being cleaned. Wow we dodged that one. We both ordered 2 piece cod and chips and saved half for our dinner tonight.

Along the waterfront Ray noticed a wooden mast sailing boat, so we had to get a closer look, sporting a German flag. They are a long way from home!

Tonight we pack up ready for our long drive tomorrow to L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, where the Viking Village is.