Maggie in Newfoundland Again 2016: Day 13 Gros Morne

Today the weather was beautiful so I couldn’t get out and going fast enough! We went to the park Visitor Centre to buy our two-day pass. While there, we had an interesting discussion about giant hogweed. According to the girls who work at the desk, I need to amend my previous post – they do not have giant hogweed here. They only have it in St. John’s. When I challenged that a bit, they admitted they knew little about it, but somebody told them that there was none in the park! We Googled together and found a chart that compared cow parsnip (which is native and plentiful here) with giant hogweed. They are alarming similar so it’s not much wonder the average person can’t tell the noxious weed from its less offensive cousin! According to the information they provided I am not at all confident that some of what we saw wasn’t the nasty stuff but either way, I am going to have to get better about identifying it if we are going to continue to roam around the countryside like we do!

Pass in hand we set out for the Discovery Centre, an hour away in Woody Point. It took us hours to get there!! Every few kilometers we would see something in some direction, usually every direction that we wanted a closer look at. Honestly those glaciers did an amazing job of sculpting an incredible landscape. Poor David’s head was like it was on a swivel! He would take a picture and turn to leave. His eye would catch something new, or I would be shouting for him to “come look”!

Gros Morne has 20 designated hiking trails. Now that doesn’t count the look offs, or short strolls that regularly appear. I had gone through the map book and identified nine that I thought we could manage in five days. Some are just a couple of kilometers, some 10 kilometres, and most fall between four and six. The thing is that each is distinctive and unbelievably, more beautiful than the last.

On one or our first roadside stops we discovered two red Adirondack style chairs pointed in the direction of Bonne Bay. We learned that these are two of many throughout the park that invite folks to just sit and appreciate the view. We have found four sets of them so far and let me tell you they are well placed. Only 14 more to go!

Southeast Brook Falls beckoned from further along the road and we set off on a pretty hike. We happened upon, in fact almost stepped on, a pair of Pine Grosbeaks (male and female), on the path hunting for insects (I assume). They seemed unperturbed by our presence so David was getting everything set for what would have been some pretty awesome pictures when the only other people we saw for the entire hike barreled toward us on the trail scaring off the birds. Now when you see two people clearly on the ground concentrating, hiking etiquette would suggest that you approach quietly. Apparently this couple (from Ontario!! – since that was the only other car in the parking lot) didn’t know this. They were apologetic when they saw what they had done but by then it was too late and the moment had passed. Trust me though, while we don’t have evidence, it was very cool. The falls at the end of the trail was worth the hike. While David did that head spin thing and muttered about shooting fish in a barrel (that’s his chorus for this trip), I sat and thought about the people who laid the rail line and then years later the power lines across this province. If the one I was able to see was any indication, it really must have been quite the task. The scenery though would have been breathtaking! I think about the oddest things when I take a moment to just sit and think!

When we finally made it to the Discovery Centre we made a very short stop. The displays looked very well done but honestly we didn’t want to learn about the park so much as get out there and “discover” it on our own. If I had a question as I wandered, I would find someone to ask or Google would help eventually. There was a lookout hiking trail that started from the parking lot. We had two choices. We could take the five kilometer trail (the original plan) or switch to the one kilometre trail. We went with the shorter route since clearly we were not going to get to do everything and we had to leave room for serendipity – always a welcome companion on our journeys! Right call! I am sure the longer trail was beautiful, as everything here is, but I would hate to think we might have missed even a single minute of the rest of our day!

Following the road toward Trout River we traveled through some of the most interesting landscape we have ever seen. Called the Tablelands, it is literally the earth’s mantle, left exposed when the glacial ice carved through this formed ocean bed. The plates shifted and caused part of the earth’s mantle to rise to the surface. It remains one of the few places on earth where this is still evident and offers a hiking experience that is breathtakingly beautiful and somewhat otherworldly! There is a trail that leads through the area, back to ice that is still trapped between the mountains and cascades in waterfalls to the bog below. The land is very deceptive and what appears a short walk or climb can in facts take hours to navigate. So while the trail is provided, you are also welcome to go off trail with a warning to be careful. Loose rocks, deceptive distances and hiking beyond your abilities are all real dangers here. We are pretty experienced hikers though and while we completed the marked trail, we spent much of our afternoon off trail, feeling like we were the only people on the planet sometimes! That feeling of complete isolation is very intense here. It’s not worrisome in anyway, just very peaceful and humbling to have been gifted with the opportunity. In our busy world there are not too many places where you can feel like you have the world to yourself – very cool!

We did occasionally meet people along the trail. For example there was the woman who was hiking with her bear bell! I didn’t have the heart to tell her that out in the Rockies they called those dinner bells! I did mention the bell though and she immediately shared that she had been told there were bears in the area. I confirmed that there were but that they posed little danger if you kept your distance. I explained that the only worry really was in not seeing them and startling them. They are just as afraid of you, as you are of them, blah, blah, blah. I thought maybe she might make the connection between this very open, barren, landscape with nowhere to hide and the fact that bears were not a big threat in this particular area. She didn’t! So we continued on and she went her way, ringing her little bell as she went. We saw, or rather heard her a couple of times – David called her Tinkerbell!

After hours of exploring and hundreds of pictures later we drove to the end of the road in Trout River as much for a place to turn around as anything when we happened on a beach with a boardwalk that stretched around the bay and sat between the ocean and the houses clinging to the sloping land. A couple was sitting on a bench and before long we discovered they were retired teachers, loving retirement and made it a point to come to Gros Morne every year because they love it so much. They were waiting for their reservation time at Seaside Restaurant at the head of the bay. They had been told it was very good and suggested we check to see if we could get in – we did! The family owned restaurant was started by the matriarch of the family some years ago when she converted part of her husband’s fishing shed to cook fresh fish for locals and tourists. Her children now continue the tradition, and it’s no wonder! The pan fried cod was delicious, the vegetable cooked to perfection, and the bakeapple cheesecake was worth every calorie! It has made the Top Places to Eat in Canada list and it was easy to see why.

We left the restaurant to head back to the other side of the bay to watch the sun set at Lobster Bay Lighthouse. As the sun set we found another hike and another set of red chairs at Salmon Point. With the last steps in us for this day, we hiked up and out to the edge of cliff that juts into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Arriving home after dusk we can claim with some authority that we couldn’t have fit any more into this day!

Just another roadside view

The first of the "red chairs" and the master at work!

A boat heading home to Norris Point

Over the nose of the truck you can see how the highway wraps around the base of the mountain at the edge of the sea!

It doesn't matter which way you point the camera

Pretty view of one of the side valleys cut into the mountain range by glacial ice

Another road less travelled. I will never tire of these "invitations to explore"

Southeast Brook Falls

Just enjoying the view

Journeying into the Tablelands. Notice the crowds!!

That's me, way back there! Loving life!

Serpentine rock - formed when water forced into the rock mixed with minerals to form a new rock layer. It looked like beautiful mosaics covering the outer layer of the pieces of mantle! so cool. All very different coloured depending on the trace minerals in the host rock.