Newfoundland
It takes a 7-8 hr ferry ride (bringing the car) to get here, from North Sydney, Cape Breton. We booked a room on the overnight ferry, and slept remarkably well. We both wanted to visit Newfoundland because it’s definitely off the beaten track for visitors to Atlantic Canada, and it’s a mix of different ecosystems. There are lakes and mountains…
… but also bogs…
Marsh Marigold
… icebergs…
… puffins(!)…
… caribou…
… and moose, which we saw 2 of, but with no photographic proof. :(
The ferry arrived at the SW corner of the island, and after a hearty breakfast at a local cafe, we headed north. The first area we were going to explore was Gros Morne National Park. This lies along the western coast in the Great Northern Peninsula and extends east to the Long Range of mountains, which is the northern end of the Appalachians! A lot of this area is a boggy plain, dotted with innumerable bodies of water…
… that sometimes have cute inhabitants -
Apparently, moose are commonly seen on this peninsula, but no matter how far we tramped through the woods, or drove from one end of the island to the other, we were not fortunate enough to photograph one on this trip. I have yet to capture a photo of a full grown male with antlers, but Steve tried to help me out -
Gros Morne has beautiful territory for hiking, so we were definitely in our element here. The first trek we took on was to Baker’s Brook Falls (and included the Little Pond). We walked through a bog area on boardwalks and saw the remains of Pitcher Plants just off to the side -
The official Provincial Flower is carnivorous!
I was amazed that they would have survived the winter, and not just got completely broken down. There wasn't much for us to see, as far as vistas go...
(the ocean is that blue blur at the horizon)
... so we focused on birds (imagine that!) like this cute Black-and-white Warbler...
... and the Spruce Grouse beautifully posing...
... along with multicolored fungi -
The Brook’s Falls…
... were definitely worth the hike -
We stayed three nights in the town of Rocky Harbour (note the Canadian spelling), to easily access Gros Morne park. So the next day we hiked to the base of Gros Morne Mountain.
Gros Morne is on the right
Table Mountain was a pretty mosaic -
We crossed a brook near a nice waterfall...
... on the way to the plateau...
... with several streams and ponds -
We thought the catkins of the Speckled Alder (you can see on the bottom right of that picture above) were quite pretty -
We needed to turn around at this valley because the route to the top was closed for a month. This was for the births and growth of the young of several species of birds and mammals. So we enjoyed the expansive views on our way back down -
We did one more hike in the national park, but I'll cover that (and more) in the next post. This sunset in Rocky Harbour will close out this one nicely -
