Rule Number One - DON'T HIT THE MOOSE (Newfoundland) - Sept 2026
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| The Chimney at Spiller's Cove |
Originally this trip was slated for a 10 day visit to the North Cascades area of Washington state, but if you would have checked the weather map for the Pacific Northwest in late August and early September you would have seen forest fires galore. Not really looking to hike and be outdoors when there's a smoke advisory and bad air quality. Then came the question of what were we going to do as a replacement trip? I looked at British Columbia, Canada but there also lots of fires in the region too. Alberta? How about something on the east side of Canada? In my spare time when surfing Reddit or Instagram I always bookmark or save interesting looking outdoor places. On my map I had Torngat National Park saved which is in the upper section of Labrador and Labrador is apart of Newfoundland and Labrador. Then the hunt began for what could we actually do in Newfoundland and Labrador, as you will see below we found plenty.
Day 1 - Toronto
Well, it finally happened. We didn’t get to the destination on the planned date or time due to weather or plane cancellation. We arrived on time in Toronto at 4pm to catch our connecting flight to St. John’s but as soon as we landed the flight was delayed 1.5 hours. No biggie, we’ll have dinner and chill. 30 minutes later, another text arrives with another 30 minute delay. After putzing around the airport forever it was time to board and after half the plane had boarded the gate agent stopped boarding and told everyone to get off because the flight is now cancelled.
Immediately there was a mad dash for the customer service desk to rebook and figure out hotels. The customer service agent made an announcement that this desk she was managing does will not rebook flights as this will happen automatically and that you will also get a notification on hotel bookings. So, we took a seat and waited, kind of doubting that Air Canada would come through quickly. While waiting we were searching for backup hotel plans and as soon as we were looking for rooms, they were disappearing as fast as we could open the websites. But a few minutes later, we got 2 more texts, one for a rebooked flight tomorrow at noon and also a direct link to a hotel booking at the hotel connected to the airport.
Now the sprint begins to the hotel because of course we are not the only people on the flight that got a room at this hotel. We were 3rd or 4th in line for the hotel booking, but when we left there were another 20 people waiting in line.
Not really an adventurous day but at least another memorable start to a hopefully good vacation. Sure beats working regardless how crappy a day it is.
Day 2 - Toronto to St. John’s
Got to sleep in today. We were far from downtown Toronto, when we considered venturing out, but with the core of downtown 40mins away by public transit, we decided it wasn’t worth the time or effort even though we would love to see more of Toronto. Yep, we’ve spent a day here many years ago but not really enough time.
Our flight left at 11:55am and landed in Newfoundland at 4:45pm, note that Newfoundland is 1.5hours ahead of Toronto so we lost a little more time. Our bags made the journey but took a bit longer than usual as one of our bags, along with 50 others, got stuck on another rack and was set aside for no good reason. We were on our way after getting the bag and heading to our hotel north of the city, we checked in and dropped off our gear and then started looking for dinner plans. We wanted to visit the Quidi Vidi village (mainly for Quidi Vidi Brewery) but it seems they close early on Sundays and also had a wedding going on so we could not visit. We settled for the Mallard Cottage for dinner, but they were full and since we did not have a reservation we had to hit the road again but before we left we inquired on where else we should go. The host recommended a few places we already had on the list that were either booked up or closed on Sunday night. The place he recommended was Blue on Water in downtown on Waters Street, the place has a bar room and a proper dining room. Amazing meal, Gnocchi and Burrata and as a main Flatiron Steak and veggies, truly proper stuff. Of course I had a few local beers.
I guess I never mentioned that when we landed, visibility was less than ideal I’d say maybe 400yards/meters. And the visibility never got much better all evening, and the rain just continued from when we landed until we got back to the hotel. Of course before the getting to the hotel we stopped at a local favorite ice cream shop called Bergs which was interestingly enough inside a gas station.
Day 3 - St. John’s
Our first full day in Newfoundland, we slept in because we thought the weather was going to be miserable, so miserable in fact that we actually cancelled our morning boat tour and pushed it to tomorrow.
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| St. John's Basilica |
After getting moving we headed over to the St John’s Basilica for the usual lookie-loo. It was a typical Catholic Church but I would say it was a bit different because the interior ceiling was entirely flat, I cannot say that I’ve seen this in another church and if you’ve been reading then you know we’ve seen quite a few. I should build a list of all the ones I’ve seen, maybe if I get REALLY bored I’ll do that. Regardless it was an interesting space with really nice stained glass windows and a very ornate ceiling. Gaudy by no means and the outside was very conservative. There was even a little shrine from the people Portugal mentioning "Our Lady of Fatima" a place we visited on our Portugal trip.
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| Main cathedral |
From the main building we got quick tour of the Bishop’s old palace, it is where the Bishop used to live I guess before the building became too old to upkeep and he decided to get a better house off site. The upstairs of the palace was now a library/recital hall.
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| Library/Recital hall |
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| Old office |
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| Jellybean houses in downtown St. John's |
We had originally parked downtown with the intention of eating at the Bagel Cafe, when we parked before heading to the church we saw the line was out the door. We thought going to the church first was a good plan to let the line die down, and indeed when we returned for breakfast there was no line and we were seated immediately. I had the crab cake eggs Benedict and Rebe had a bagel eggs Benedict both were served with a mound of cubed potatoes…probably should have just split one.
Fully loaded up on carbs, we headed to over to the easternmost point of North America, Cape Spear. Cape Spear houses the oldest standing lighthouse in Canada and the cape is also home to a former WWII battery where they would fire on attacking vessels coming from Europe. Getting out of the car the fog was still heavy but by the time we were walking away from the lighthouse the fog had completely lifted. The fog was so bad that the fog horns were going off to warn incoming ships and not just the Cape Spear horn but also the Fort Amhurst horn too. We even chilled in some of the famous red chairs and watch gannets dive for fish.
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| Fog from when we arrived |
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| The current (new) lighthouse |
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| New and Old lighthouses |
From Cape Spear, we drove across The Narrows (the mouth of the bay) to the other side to the Signal Hill area. We parked at the Signal Hill Visitor’s Center as we had heard that the parking lot at the top is small and a nightmare to park. This just meant we had to hike to the top, but instead of taking the short route we hiked along the coast for some epics views and even a cruise boat exited the bay while we were walking. Problem with this route is there are a lot of steps to get back to the top of Signal Hill, but we made it.
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| Cruise ship leaving St. John's |
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| Coast along the trail |
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| Cabot Tower on Signal Hill |
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| Us at Cabot Tower |
After a few pics at the top we made our back down to our car and headed back into St. John’s proper for a meal at LIV, an asian fusion place where we had fried cauliflower, two sushi rolls and some tuna tartare. All in all another great meal in St. John’s. Had to finish the night off with some ice cream from Sweet Rock (Lemon Meringue Pie).
Day 4 - St John’s - Witless Bay - Dildo - Clarenville
Having seen enough of St. John’s it was time for us to move on to see the rest of Newfoundland, it wouldn’t be a trip to Newfoundland without a boat ride to see puffins. Yes those cute and so tiny birds that have that iconic beak. Apparently they don’t keep that unique beak all year around but it only shows during their breeding season and the main time that they touch land, when not breeding they hangout in the ocean.
So we drove down to Bay Bulls to do the boat tour at Gatherall’s, this group does tours that focus on whales (when in season which it is not really anymore) and birds. Puffins are the main draw birdwise but of course you would see other gulls and such. While we did see many puffins, some sitting the water and other zooming back at 50mph (80kph) so it was hard to take good pics. We also happen to see a few minke whales, which are the smallest of the baleen type of whales but they are so quick to surface and don’t always announce their surfacing that I did not get a pic. We also saw the Atlantic Sun Fish (Mola Mola) definitely an interesting sight and kind of a joke of a fish. Not quite sure how these things are still in existence… they must taste horrible to other predators.
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| Mola Mola |
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| Puffin |
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| Puffin |
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| Gull Island |
After luckily avoiding the sea sickness we drove a bit further south on the east side of Newfoundland to locate the East Coast Trail. It follows the coast from south of Witless Bay down around a point with nothing but great views of the coast and off shore islands. We only hiked down for 1.5miles (~2.4km) to reach to point before circling back. At the point we saw a bald eagle and some seals popping up.
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| View along the trail |
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| Another view along the trail |
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| Bald Eagle resting on a rock |
By this time we were well past lunch time and heading towards dinner time, our plan was to drive over to Dildo which was a slight detour from our destination for the night. Dildo is now famous for its Hollywood-esque sign gifted from Jimmy Kimmel, but the town also has a brewery and museum which are worthy of a visit. We had the burger and some hella cheap crab legs which were excellent.
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| Yep, it's actually called Dildo |
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| The Dildo Hollywood-esque sign |
We needed some supplies so we stopped at the local Dildo grocery store and while checking out, not sure we said something awkward or if we just had that look that we weren’t local so the cashier asked where we were from. She quickly in a Newfoundlander accent spit out some town we’d never heard of, to which Rebe and I quickly shook that off. So then, she kept asking “Ontario?” “No, further” we replied, “Alberta?” she asked, “No, further” we replied, “BC!?” “No, further” and at this point she was dumbfounded as to where in the world we could be from. We then told her “Texas” to which she rightfully replied “trying to escape, eh?” The gentleman behind us asked what we were doing up in Dildo, and we told him just trying to explore this beautiful island.
Before the night was over had some local ice cream before Rebe drove us to our hotel in Clarenville.
Day 5 - Clarenville - Elliston - Bonavista - Port Rexton - Clarenville
A bit of a loop today, just a way to keep from packing and unpacking everyday. We got up around 8am got dressed and headed out for the adventure but first we stopped at this newish bakery in Clarenville called Bakery ’56. We had these breakfast sandwiches on croissants, ::chef’s kiss:: So good we vowed to go back tomorrow.
Our first stop was to try and catch some more puffins in action up at the Elliston Puffin Viewing Site, it’s a bit of land where the puffins nest that is on the mainland so you can just walk up and see them. When we arrived none of the puffins were on land and hundreds of them were just floating in the ocean. We saw a lot more puffins but they were all 300 yards/meters away.
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| Those specs are puffins |
With that dream smashed we moved on to our next stop which was the Klondike Trail which lead to Spillars Cove. This great trail starts in the woods and then opens to rolling hills before reaching Spillars Cove and it’s beautiful coastline, if you find yourself in this area feel free to skip this trail if starting at the Elliston side. Just go straight to Spillars Cove and save yourself 2km (1.3mi). Now if you do come in September like we did and you’re dumb enough not to listen to this advice you will be greeted by bushes and bushes of wild blueberry and you can gorge yourself for 2km before you get to Spillars Cove. This is a good upside, but it’s the only one.
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| Spiller's Cove |
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| Spiller's Cove |
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| Wild Blueberries |
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| Bushes!! |
From Eillston we made our way up to Bonavista to see the historic lighthouse which was very cool but not as picturesque as I was hoping. Too many buildings, too many structures… I was hoping it would be isolated but meh. We then had lunch at Ragged Rocks Gastopub in Bonavista, where we had some fried cod bites and crab dip.
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| Us at the lighthouse |
Last big stop was the Skerwink Trail down in Port Rexton, this was probably the most epic coastal trail we have been on thus far. Just nonstop views once the trail got close to the shore. If you do the trail clockwise you will start on the west shore and end on the east with views overlooking White Cove and its tiny lighthouse. We even saw our second bald eagle of the trip.
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| Coastal area near Port Rexton |
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| Coastal area near Port Rexton |
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| The white dot is a bald eagle |
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| Trinity/Fort Point Lighthouse |
Time for my first random tangent of the blog:
Since we at lunch so late, we only wanted to grab something light for dinner and there was a restaurant just down the street that was advertising that they would be open until 8pm. Since it was only 720pm we headed down the street to grab a quick bite, the parking lot had a few cars but it was not packed as we found a parking space easily. We stroll in and no one greeted us at the door so we looked around to find someone and we found a crew of workers huddling seemingly trying to make an Old Fashioned. We asked, “can we get a table?” To which a lady replied, “do you have a reservation?” and of course we said “no.” And then she just shook her head and no one else said anything for about 30 seconds. I get that maybe she was preoccupied, or maybe the 2 brain cells she had had enough for the day but if you’re running a restaurant and it’s about 30 minutes to closing and you do not know if you’ve sat your last reservation maybe you should not be taking reservations. Also, if you can’t look at a potential customer and at least say “sorry, we don’t have any table due to reservations or that we close in 30 minutes you are just a rude asshole. After this awkward silent Rebe then asks, “I assume that is a no?” By this point I was already heading for the door, Rebe wanted to ask them if we could get something to go, and I was of the opinion that if that’s how she treats guests who walk in she is not getting any of my money. If you ever find yourself in Port Rexton/Trinity East go ahead and avoid the Brightside Bistro.
Back to Clarenville where we did some shopping in preparation for tomorrow.
Day 6 - Terra Nova National Park - Twillingate
Our shopping last night prepped us for the road this morning, though I was still yearning for a revisit to Bakery ’56, we skipped and headed over to our first national park of the trip, Terra Nova National Park. The park was the first on Newfoundland and was set aside to preserve the forest, uplands and rugged coast.
Our first stop was the Ochre Hill Trail, it was a nice stroll through the woods before it opens up to a large rock outcrop that provides great views of the surrounding area. Again the trail was filled with blueberry bushes to which we, but mostly Rebe, enjoyed ourselves. The view at the top was truly great but it was very windy up there.
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| View from the Ochre Hill Trail |
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| Overlook at the end of the trail |
Once off the main trail there is an old fire lookout tower that was visible from the hike, that you could go 3/4 of the way up, we of course did and it was even more windy on the tower. There were a few signs to read explaining the local wildlife in addition to some history of the fire tower. We ventured along a trail that circled the fire tower before hitting the road again.
Next stop was the main visitor’s center to see the exhibits, pay our entrance fee and to eat some lunch. We parked ourselves on the back patio of the visitor’s center and enjoyed the view of the lake. While we were eating, a zodiac boat brought a few people to shore from a large boat parked in the middle of the harbor who looked like scientists, but then the zodiac brought some more people who didn’t look like scientists and then even more people who also didn’t look like scientists. We asked a Parks Canada employee “what’s up with the boat?” She informed us that is an Adventure Canada cruise ship, duly noted.
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| Adventure Canada cruise boat |
After lunch we walked down the Coastal Trail for a bit and after realizing that it was going to be the same view and same trail for the next 2 miles we turned around and headed back to the car for our next adventure.
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| Beach on the Coastal Trail |
We had a few trails to decide from and the ranger narrowed our selections down to Louil Hill Trail or the Mill Cove Lookout Trail. Louil Hill Trail won and similar to the Ochre Hill Trail it was mostly a walk through the woods before you scale a hill for the view, except this time the climb was not up a hill but up 139 stairs. Also it was again very windy at the top, I’d say more windy than the previous two highpoints (tower and Ochre hill) we visited.
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| View from the top of Louil Hill |
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| The trees along the trail |
It was now time to move towards our resting place for the night on Twillingate Island. Before Twillingate we stopped in Gander for more supplies at WallyWorld and then dinner at a seafood shack on the coast called Sansome’s (https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z2p8yxxovfm5BVB88). I meant to take pictures but it was rainy and I was really hungry).
Day 7 - Twillingate
Breakfast was done in our AirBnB and then we were out the door and on our way to the French Beach Trail, just another trail along the coast of Newfoundland but this one was the best of all the trails to date. Every sight, every view was just spectacular and to finish it off we saw a juvenile osprey in a giant nest at the end. We did get lost on the way back to the car but that’s only a minor set back that should not be counted against this awesome trail.
Once we were done with French beach we headed to the North Twillingate Island because of course there’s two islands, we had lunch at a tiny cafe (Crow’s Nest Cafe) run by a family out of the front of their house (we assume it was the front of their house). We had a nice panini and some soup, it was a nice break from all the fried food being served around here. Is it me or do tourist small town always serve fried foods? Not that I’m a vegetarian cause you know I can eat my weight in fried potatoes but ya boy needs some fiber every now and then.
From the cafe we moved up the road to check out the Long Point Lighthouse before embarking on our next trail Nanny’s Hole Loop and Lower Head Loop. Good hikes with decent views but could not outshine the hike from the morning. On our way back we were walking past this house or structure and and young man drove by, a few minutes later he was coming back up the road so I stuck my thumb out as a joke to save Rebe and I from having to walk another 1.5 miles back to the lighthouse. He stopped and I asked if he was going to the lighthouse and he offered us a ride. Yep, we hitched another ride and he dropped us off at the lighthouse, we’re 100% sure he was not going to the lighthouse but he took us anyways and then turned down our attempts to pay him for his taxi service.
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| Nanny's Head and Lower Head Loop |
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| Nanny's Head and Lower Head Loop |
Having saved some hiking time, we had time to hit the local brewery or the place where the brewery actually sells it’s beer, except that the bar that I’m referring to seems to have closed for the season. So we stopped over at the Stage Head pub for a few pints to kill time before dinner. In my quest to find some non fried food, I was unsuccessful, and we ended up back as Sansome’s for more seafood. Rebe went big on a plate of crab legs and I went for the full fried platter of fish, calamari, spring roll, fish cakes and french fries. Someone say a prayer for my arteries.
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| My Platter |
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| Rebe's Crab Legs |
Day 8 - Twillingate - Rocky Harbour (Gros Morne)
Today was moving day but before hitting the road we wanted to tackle another trail in the Twillingate area. We stopped at Robin’s for breakfast, Robin’s is a fast food joint in town (which we didn’t know) and everyone and their mother was in the drive through line. We understood why everyone was in the drive through line as it was a bit soggy out, not quite raining anymore but just wet, cold, and very windy. We got our breakfast sandwiches and headed for the Lower Little Harbour Trail, when we arrived we were the first ones on the trail and with the wind we understood why. But other than the biting wind it was an epic trail that went along the coast with excellent views and spectacular waves crashing into to the section of the island and neighboring islands.
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With the epic hike finished, we hit the road to cover about 4 hours of road, most of it nothing to talk about other than normal scenery. We did stop in Grand Falls to have some decent Indian food and then another stop in Deer Lake for lunch supplies for the upcoming days.
We ended up staying in Rocky Harbour for our first few days in Gros Morne National Park. We tried to go to a local pub for dinner and while there was a concert slated for 830pm we were there at 730pm in an attempt to eat and run before the noise started. After 45 minutes of no service and trying to order at the bar and failing, we walked across the street to try and order a pizza. The pizza joint was so backed up with people trying to pay their tabs they were unable to seat people. Finally after what was probably another 30 minutes of waiting we just put in a to-go order in and told them we’ll be back to get it. We ate in our room along with a Quidi Vidi beer I picked up in Deer Lake.
Day 9 - Rocky Harbour (Gros Morne National Park)
First full day in Gros Morne National Park, it was a beautiful day out and we knew we needed to take advantage of the day but just not sure how we should go about it. Should we do the 11 mile hike up Gros Morne Mountain, or take it easy and just do 5 or 6 miles to another waterfall. Since the Visitor’s Center did not open until 9am we headed up the coast to a unique spot called Green Point, at the beach there is a cliff with millions of years of exposed rock displaying all the layers and layers of history. Sadly the park only had one sign to explain the geological feature, more signs were definitely needed as this was a very cool place.
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| Exposed slanted layers of Green Point |
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| Low tide exposed rocks |
After Green Point we hit up the Visitor’s Center to speak with a ranger and actually contemplate a gameplan for the day. We were still torn in taking it easy or going big. Have you ever been on the trail and you’re heading back to the car and you see a group of people just getting started and in your head you’re thinking “I hope they aren’t going to the top, it’s a bit late to be starting out.” Well, that was us today, hitting the trail at 11am for what would ultimately be a 7.5 hour hike. We would be hiking from the road, up 3000’ feet (915m) and then down the back side of the mountain. The hike up was tough but nothing too bad, it was a slog and like all summits, when you think you have reached the top there’s always another hill ahead. But we made it and at the summit there were little structures to help hide you from the wind while you eat lunch or think about the mistakes you have made for the day.
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| Crow Gulch Falls |
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| Us in the hut at the summit |
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| Summit sign |
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| Rebe cresting one of the many false summits |
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| 10 Mile Pond on the backside of Gros Morne |
The hike up the mountain was only 4 miles (6.4km) but the hike down the mountain was another 7 miles (11.2km) and not the easy just walk down the path miles it was over rocks and through bushes and of course downhill so it was not like you could speed walk. Did I mention there was mud? Back side of the mountain was gorgeous but not 7 mile gorgeous.
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| A smaller waterfall seen from the trail |
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| A pic showing the hike up and the rocks you have to climb over |
With the hike completed, and with our lesson from yesterday learned we called in the pizza before leaving the parking lot and its was ready shortly after we got back to town.
Day 10 - Rocky Harbour (Gros Morne National Park)
Yesterday was a monster of a hike and today was actually planned to be a monster of a hike too. While Gros Morne wasn’t originally on must-do schedule, a hike up from Western Brook Pond was. We booked this hike last week because we wanted to ensure we got a spot on the boat. It is one of those hikes where they boat you across a lake so you can do the hike and then pick you up when you’re done. Last night just as we were about to settle into bed we get an email saying that due to low signup our trip was cancelled. Apparently we were the only two people who signed up to the do the hike on this day, maybe it was due to the weather outlook being bad, who knows. So as a substitute we signed up for the Western Brook Pond boat tour which at least gives you can better view of the lake, this is scheduled for 130pm.
With the afternoon settled we had a few hours before needing to be at the dock for our boat ride, we decided to hit the Baker’s Brook Falls. It was a relatively flat hike through the woods that ended at the falls, on the way back to the car we swung off on two side trails. The first was to a fenced off section of forest that displayed the impact moose were having on the forest and the second was just by Little Pond.
Now we needed to get over the Western Brook Pond for our boat tour, we actually hustled on the trail to get to the Pond in time. We get to the parking lot and notice that the parking is looking a bit thin, Rebe checks her email and “ALL TOURS FOR THE DAY ARE CANCELLED DUE TO HIGH WIND.” Just cannot catch a break on this POND. If we were to have caught the boat, we would have had to walk to the boat dock which is 1.5 miles (2.44km) from the parking lot, with nothing else to do this afternoon we decided to walk to the pond in hopes of better views. The views did not actually get better due to the shape of the pond and the surrounding walls which were created by previous glacier activity.
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| Misty view into the area of Western Brook Pond |
The rest of the afternoon was an attempt to kill time before dinner. First was a visit to Steve’s Trail/Brooms Point for a view.
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| Steve's Trail viewpoint |
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| Remnants of S.S. Ethie |
Then finally we ended the day at the Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse.
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| Lobster Cove Lighthouse |
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| Coastal area below the lighthouse, looking back at Rocky Harbour Dinner was at Java Jack’s, a nice change of pace from the typical fried fish eatery we had be accustomed to in these small towns. |
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| My fish and Rebe's moose pie |
Day 11 - Rocky Harbour to Saint Lunaire-Griquet
It was another moving day, big move this time, all the way to the north where the road follows the Viking Trail, a historic route in which the old Viking used. We did not need to be anywhere at any specific time so we slept in and got on the road shortly before needing to check out of our room.
We had a few stops picked out for along the way and the first was a small provincial park named Arches just about an hour away. Free and only took about 20 minutes to see, there were a few sea stacks on the beach which had had their based eroded away.
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| Arch |
From there we moved on another hour up the road the to town of Port au Choix or rather the National Historic Site along the coast where numerous artifacts of the archaic natives that lived in the area all the way up to the Vikings, Basque, French and English who eventually settled the area. It was cool to learn the history and see the artifacts and hike the trails to some of the historical sites where they are still recovering relics. This was also the first time we saw large animals on Newfoundland, we finally found some caribou at the lighthouse along the coast near Port au Choix.
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| Caribou |
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| Point Riche Lighthouse |
After the lighthouse and caribou we took a power nap before hiking Philip’s Garden trail. A quick jaunt along the coast with good views.
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| Philip's Garden Trail |
We continued up the coast with the next planned stop to be the town of St. Anthony but a sign caught Rebe’s eye, something about some Thrombolites so she made me pull over. We hop out and walk this trail from the road basically to the beach to check out these interesting mounds. Here’s the wiki definition - Thrombolites are ancient, clotted, rock-like structures built by microscopic organisms like cyanobacteria in shallow water.
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| Thrombolites |
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| More Thrombolites |
Then it was into St. Anthony for dinner at the Lighthouse Cafe, the building was a former residence of the lightkeeper. The restaurant sits on a beautiful coastline.
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| Coast from near the Lighthouse Cafe |
We did some grocery shopping for breakfast items and had to get a pint of ice cream for dessert.
Day 12 - Saint Lunaire-Griquet
Why travel to the northern extremes of Newfoundland? Well most of us are taught that Columbus “discovered” “America.” Well, you can’t really discover something where people already live and you also are second when someone else beats you by 450+ years. The Norse Sagas have Leif Erikson reaching L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland around 1000AD and evidence has been found of his camps to back up this claim. He didn’t stay long, but others used his camp for the next 3-10 years.
So this is why we traveled to the northern end of Newfoundland to get to see this interesting history and to see how the Norse sheltered in Canada many many years ago.
The Visitor’s Center opened at 9 so we took our time getting out the door and once we arrived we had planned to do our own walking tour but the park puts on guided tours so we joined in and listened to this rich history. Our guide spoke of why they came (Greenland has no trees), how they got there (following the coasts) and when (around 1000AD). He also guided us on the structure of the camp and what the archeologists believe each house was for based on the finding of all the digs.
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| Our guide explaining that these divots were former house locations |
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| Recreation of what they believe the houses to look like |
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| Reenactor telling us Norse stories |
The park even has gone through the effort to rebuild the house structure where the boat crew lived, inside this structure were actors (employees) who could further answer questions on the history of the area.
After the tour we took a stroll around a path that went around the point that the is near L’Anse aux Meadows.
We then had lunch up the road at Skipper’s Hot Pub and Grub, not bad considering. Then we came back and did another hike along another point, this trail was the Round Head Iceberg Trail.
Our original plan was to visit the other side of the northern peninsula but with the drive taking 45 minutes, and the road we wanted to go down requiring 4x4, we decided to skip the drive and find another local trail to hit and potentially scope out a sunset photo location. We picked the Camel’s Back Trail which was a nice short hike and had great views of the surrounding coast but ultimately the trail ends faced east and it was going to be a cloudy sunset anyways. - saw a moose print in the trail hiking up (still thinking they making those big animals up since we hadn't seen any)
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| Views from the Camel's Back Trail end |
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| Another view from Camel's Back |
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| Just read this madness |
With sunset plans cancelled we headed for dinner at Cafe Nymphe (above the Dark Tickle Company store) which I'd highly recommend.
Day 13 - Saint Lunaire-Griquet to Woody Point
Not too much action today, left our cabin in Saint Lunaire-Griquet and headed back south to Gros Morne National Park area, our goal today was to catch the 3pm boat to do the tour of Western Brook Pond. And that’s what we did, got up, drove, and got on a boat. We did stop for lunch though.
I did think the walls above the Pond would be more spectacular, I think this was just a case of me overhyping something in my head. It was still a pretty epic boat ride.
After the boat ride we made an excursion down to Deer Lake to meet up with a friend who lives in Newfoundland, I worked with him in Houston and contacted him that I was coming to his neck of the woods. He actually lives in St. John’s and while we were over there he was actually just getting back into civilization from a camping trip. He just happened to be at an event on the west side of Newfoundland and we were able to connect for dinner.
Then we had to drive the 45 minutes back up to our room for the night. Rebe and I have been driving around this island for over a week now and everywhere we go people are saying “Moose this” and “Moose that.” Even on our boat ride this afternoon the guide asked “who’s seen a moose?” and only one person raised their hand. It was getting to the point that Rebe and I were convinced that moose are a joke and not really on this island. Well, on the drive home, in the pitch black, there they were 2 moose just posing in the road. Stopped with plenty of time, no issues, but apparently the moose are real! But I did have to change my underwear when we got to the room.
And as for the title of this blog, after we saw the first 'WARNING: MOOSE IN THE AREA' sign I had to have a talk with Rebe. "Under no circumstances do you hit a moose, EVER. Drive right, stomp the brake, whatever you do, RULE NUMBER ONE (and the only rule) is DON'T HIT THE MOOSE." Coyotes, deer, caribou, your car might be damaged or totaled but you could walk away from that accident. Hitting a moose is a first class ticket to Deadsville.
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Day 14 - Woody Point (Gros Morne National Park)
Made it back to Gros Morne and ready to tackle another challenge, the plan for today would be to scale the Tablelands and survive (or not get lost). The Tablelands are a unique formation not only in Gros Morne but also in the world, this formation is a result of the Earth’s mantle coming through the crust while tectonic plates were colliding and their shape has been formed by years of glaciation. The typical trail is just a simple out and back where you just see the front of the Tablelands but there is an “off trail” route that climbs up the face then goes along the top for a while before scaling down the other side.
Our Inn provided a light breakfast of eggs, yogurt, and toast and after a few short conversations with others who were staying at the Inn we were on our way to the trailhead which is only a short drive away. The trail starts on the main trail and after 400yards(400m) the “off trail” route starts and just takes off through the rocks. The park advertises this as a trail but after completing it I would suggest they stop using the term ‘trail’ and instead say “you can walk to the top and find your way down the other side.” As we start to make our way up the ‘trail’ the path disappears and now you sort of have to figure your way to the top, now services like All Trails and Garmin have a GPS route that you can follow and the path even provides coordinates of where the turns are but each route is really a suggestion and not a worn path in the ground.
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| Tablelands Route up through the bowl |
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| Looking right from the above image |
We made our way, waffling back and forth on if "is this is the correct route" as we were up there with another couple who were just as lost. And then two more groups come up the hill behind us, one passes us on the right and then another pops up ahead of us on the left. Once at the top, again there’s no path you just walk across a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of rocks until you make your way to another canyon.
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| Rebe's I've had enough face, note the lack of trail |
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| View from the top with Gros Morne in the distance |
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| This is the view from the bottom after climbing down |
Then once at the canyon you have to figure out the best way down it, is the left side of the stream the best path? Or maybe the right? Cross it half way down? All this to say, there was a lot of second guessing our path and staring at the phone. Did I mention that it was sunny and now it was clouding over? As we made it down to the bottom on the canyon side a light rain started but never poured and continued until we got to the car. 8 miles (12.8km), 7 hours 2200ft (670m) and we were done. Probably would have been faster if we stared at the phone more but that’s no fun in the woods (or Mars, fun fact NASA tested their rovers here).
This was enough for the day, so we went back to the Inn for a shower and early dinner.
Day 15 - Woody Point (Gros Morne National Park)
The final day started with some horrible looking weather, clouds and rain and just an icky morning. Winds were predicted to be in 30mph (50kph) range, so we slept in as late as we could before heading out to breakfast. Ate a slow breakfast, chatted with our other hotel guests before going back to the room to take a nap, it was just one of those types of mornings.
After we finally got going, we headed back over to the Discovery Center, the same place where we were misled into thinking the Tablelands was a sensible idea, to check out some of the exhibits. The center has great explanations on the geology of the park and a few movies to watch and explain.
I was then getting hungry for lunch so we drove into Woody Point proper for a look-see, grabbed a sandwich and a milkshake. Then Rebe and I waffled about whether we were actually going to do something active today or just be bums. While the weather did clear up a little, there were some dark clouds on the horizon. Earlier in the blog I spoke about being the last ones on the trail and going down while everyone else was on their way back, well that was us today on our way to Green Gardens. Halfway down the the trail the dark clouds actually reached us and started to rain and sleet, while we were suiting up in our rain gear, a lady passed us and asked “are you going down?”
We reached the bottom and had the entire beach to ourselves and then the weather cleared for us. It was still windy as all heck but the sun even came out on our way back to the car.
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| Beach at Green Gardens |
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| Unique lava formation at Green Gardens |
We then ventured down into Trout River for a look around and we were going to hike another short trail, but it had a lot stairs and we also needed to get back to town before all the restaurants closed.
Next time we come to Newfoundland
Puffin nighttime rescue
Burnt cape ecological reserve - need a 4WD or do a tour with Ted
Backcountry hike of Western Brook Pond
Come during iceberg and whale season
More time in Twillingate / Visit Fogo island
Quidi Vidi brewing
More Moose
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