L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site (and a UNESCO World Heritage Site) at the very tip top of Newfoundland, was our most anticipated stop. I heard about this place, the southernmost known Norse settlement, many years ago and had been picturing it in my mind ever since. It was thrilling to actually visit the site of first known European contact with North America (and it is assumed, native Americans).

You can still see the indentations in the earth, made by Norse settlers in the 11th century. Why did they come here? No one really knows - the settlement lasted just a few years. Perhaps they came to scout, to trade, or maybe they were shipwrecked and repairing their transportation home.

There is a recreated village where you can interact with costumed reenactors. It was fascinating to sit by the fire and listen to Norse tales, watch the tanning of a seal skin, and my daughter even got to help demonstrate how to forge iron. She got to take home a nail she made with Ragnar, the blacksmith. I just have to mention that he teased her about not knowing how to tie her shoes (my fault, of course) and it was not long after that she figured it out, so thanks for that, Ragnar.

We had such a great time there that we returned again a second day in a row. I have to reiterate the brilliant thing about the Canadian parks and historic sites is that dogs are welcome. The Norse folk were delighted to meet our ‘little sheep,’ haha. My daughter loved dressing up as a Norse person and literally spent hours in the village. We did tear her away to do a hike around the site, which as you can see in the image above, is situated right on the coast.

We hiked past a little snow, through the peat bogs and up and over some rocks, enjoying the view of the ocean and the constant breeze.

You can see a more modern village nearby.

Port au Choix, Newfoundland

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

Our next stop along the western coast of Newfoundland was at Port au Choix. This area’s most notable feature is perhaps the Point Riche lighthouse, which is still active. It’s perched at the top of these long layers of rocks, which were fun to scramble along.

There were even neat formations in the rocks - fossils of some kind, maybe?

The highlight, however, were the caribou that roamed the parking area. We had never seen a caribou in the ‘wild’ before, and were delighted even at the sight of this scruffy one. There were three in the area, grazing nearby and then walking out to the shore, just like us, haha.

Port au Choix is a National Historic site because it was found to be an important place for Maritime Archaic peoples and their ancestors, as well as a major fishing settlement for the French and English. This ‘cultural crossroads’ is still home to a town and also to a fantastic museum that tells the story of this place. Right across the street from the museum, we took the Dorset Trail, an easy route through the limestone barrens and the tuckamore.

These beautiful lady slippers, and several other wildflowers, were growing in the delicate soil along the trail.

This is tuckamore - if you are not familiar with that term. It refers to short, bent spruce that have been shaped by the strong winds. They can be alone or in groups where they seem too thick to walk through.

We walked through the trees for a short way, and then it opened up to some boggy areas.

Not far beyond the bog was a lovely lake.

Gros Morne National Park, Shallow Bay

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

We spent the afternoon and night at Shallow Bay, the longest sand beach in Gros Morne National Park. Because, and I’m just guessing here, the water is shallow far out into the bay, the swimming was glorious. It was truly warm (and I am a tough critic, being from South Carolina where the water gets bathtub warm :) and I wished we had stayed a little longer.

The campground was situated in lush forest, and we walked a trail lined by these crackerberry flowers to the beach - maybe a quarter of a mile. It was quite a pleasant stay.

Gros Morne National Park, Broom Point

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

I’ll never forget our trip to Broom Point in Gros Morne National Park, because it is where we first saw minke whales. There were a couple of them surfacing right off the point and we watched them for a while. Trying to guess where they will surface next and watching the top of the water for motion just never gets old. The interpretive staff identified them for us, but the whales were not close enough to get a good photo.

But why were we at Broom Point in the first place? Every summer for about 34 years, the Mudge family - three brothers and their families - would set up in the cabin (the white building) and use the area as a base for fishing lobster, cod and salmon. Today you can see all the equipment they used and learn about the process from knowledgeable local staff. Our guide was raised in a fishing family nearby and was able to answer all our questions. This exhibit really helped us understand what a labor-intensive activity this was, and just how important it was to not only the Mudge family, but many like them up and down Newfoundland’s coast.

The surrounding landscape was just gorgeous, and we had fun looking in the tide pools at the site.

Trout River, Newfoundland

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

During our first leg at Gros Morne National Park (we hit it again on the way back down the coast) we stayed at Elephants Head RV Park. This was just one of the lovely sunsets we enjoyed from the campground. It was a great location, walking distance from the town of Trout River, where we had the best meal of our entire trip. If you ever find yourself here, you MUST go to the Seaside Restaurant, a beautiful place to eat local seafood while watching the waves lap the shore. We ordered mussels as an appetizer and they were so good we ordered more! We were also excited to try capelin, a small fish that plays a big part in the story of western Newfoundland. We ate so much that we were glad we had a walk back to the camper to help it digest.

Gros Morne National Park - Trout River Pond

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

Our next hike at Gros Morne National Park was Trout River Pond. We only did about the first half, which was quite muddy and very closed in by the forest. We did take a quick breather by the pond, where W thought she would see just how fast Lyle would run (answer, so fast she could hardly keep up.) I can’t remember if we even saw any other hikers on this trail, which made it a good spot to let W take over walking the dog, except when the mud was too slippery going up or downhill.

One good thing about the mud is that it is great for spotting tracks. Here she and Bri pulled out the activity booklet provided by the park and tried to figure out if we had found moose tracks.

Gros Morne National Park - Green Gardens

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

One of our favorite hikes of the summer, though a tough one, was Green Gardens in Gros Morne National Park. The way out is pretty much downhill, and it was pretty muddy in places. That’s half the fun, though, right? It’s not long before you can see the ocean, and eventually you come upon a green, grassy ridge that overlooks the shore.

And then there are more stairs, just in case you had not had enough.

But look at the reward! A wide beach (at low tide, anyway) fans out into low rocks that we had fun climbing on.

Some of the rocks at the beach are cracks filled with calcite and quartz. They are quite striking. We sat on some as we ate our picnic lunch and enjoyed the view.

We were hardly the only ones there, though like everywhere else we went in Newfoundland, it was not crowded.