Wednesday – August 8, 2018

Gros Morne National Park

We woke to a pouring rain pelting down upon the Humber River visible outside our window.  We had a nice breakfast and conversation with our hosts at the B&B. The rain persisted, and we decided to take advantage of the washer available to guests which would save a laundromat later in the trip.  I managed to get two days of blog written but of course was still behind.  With the laundry finished and the rain less of a downpour we headed out for our destination the day Gros Morne National Park.

Gros Morne is a place you could spend days. It has a varied terrain impacted by it being part of the Appalachian Mountains, being adjacent to the sea, and having been partly covered with the glaciers over 8000 years ago. It has areas with rugged mountains, barren tablelands, and heavy forest all fairly close to each other.  We saw frequent warnings to watch for the moose although we didn’t see any.

A destination that really interested me was the fjord at Western Brook Pond. This is a long lake formed by the glaciers and has walls up to about 2000 feet above the water. It used to exit into the ocean, but it now mostly isolated from it by about 3 kilometers. There is a reasonably flat walk you take from the road to reach it. The rain was a problem for that day. At that point there was light steady rain accompanied by mist and fog. The weather was supposed to be clearing, so far it had not.

We decided to walk in toward Western Brook Pond and hopefully take the boat ride into the fjord. The ones throughout the day had been canceled but since we were here, we decided to go for it. We found the lake and entrance to the fjord shrouded in fog and unsurprisingly our tour, and all the rest for the afternoon, were eventually canceled. After making the trek in the rain and drizzle we were pretty disappointed in the cancellation but we can’t control the weather.

The Drive to St. Barbe

The Arches

We had a hotel reservation that night in St. Barbe which was several hours away. It was in the only hotel located near the ferry to Labrador. We traveled up along the coast with the weather steadily improving. The road hugged the coast and we found it very scenic.  Something of note, Newfoundland has  utility poles with rock cribs around them.  The hard stone can make it difficult to drill a hole for them so the cribs help keep them upright.

There were many vistas along the rugged coastline. We came to a sign pointing to Arches Provincial Park and turned in without knowing what to expect. We found rock formations along the shore that had been carved out by the waves over the millennia into a set of arches. By now the sun had come out and was shining over the water through the arches. The pictures don’t really give you a good sense of scale with them.  The openings are much taller than a person and it’s more impressive in person when you are standing in them.  It was an unexpected pleasure to find them especially after our disappointment about the fjord. The drive after leaving from Western Brook Pond was really quite nice.

Port au Choix & Dinner

We started to think about dinner and I looked at TripAdvisor when I was able to pick up an occasional cell signal. There were not very many restaurants to be found in the final two hours of driving left in our trip, so pickings were slim.

We end up at the Anchor Cafe, a casual seafood place in Port au Choix.  It is a small town on the coast and fishing is a major industry there.

They had locally caught seafood that is processed locally. Naturally it was good.  I enjoyed an 1892 Traditional Ale from Quidi Vidi Brewing in St. Johns.

The day was at an end when were finished our dinner.  The waitress suggested going up to the nearby lighthouse for the sunset also said we might see moose or caribou in that area. We hustled over there and the sun was just setting when we arrived. Perfect timing and it was beautiful with the weather being just right but rapidly getting colder.

Port Richie Lighthouse

Before we headed out we went looking for moose.  There was a place nearby where people were standing with binoculars to find them in the twilight.  Debbie and I were talking to these two local fisherman who were studying them carefully.  Perhaps making them think about their upcoming hunting trips in the fall?  They were colorful and had quite the Newfoundland accent!  I did get a picture of a young moose although he wasn’t close.

We headed to the Dockside Hotel in St. Barbe to await our morning ferry.  The MV Apollo which would take us across to Labrador was at rest waiting for it’s trip the next day.

Today we drove 233 miles over 5 hours and 19 minutes for a trip total of 1989 miles.    The water total is still at 377 miles and 17 1/4 hours.