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.

Gros Morne National Park - The Tablelands

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

We were so excited to go see The Tablelands at Gros Morne National Park. This is an interesting place in geological terms - one of the few places where the Earth’s mantle protrudes above the crust. There is little vegetation, and glaciers carved beautiful curves into the landscape. It makes for a very unique sight when you can see green hills in every other direction.

There is a path that ends in a boardwalk at Winter Park Brook Canyon. You are allowed to hike, however, off the trail here, which we would have done had we more time. On the way back, we examined the pitcher plants that are easy to pick out of the landscape. My daughter had been given an eye dropper as part of her National Parks booklet, so that she could pull the liquid out of a pitcher plant, examine its contents, and then return the liquid to the plant. It was really neat to see the half-digested bug parts.

Bonne Bay

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

We worked our way up the western coast of Newfoundland, stopping both on our way up and on our way down to spend several days at Gros Morne National Park. It was spectacular from from top to bottom. This is beautiful Bonne Bay.

Newfoundland Insectarium

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

The Newfoundland Insectarium is one of those things you find in a guidebook and you think, “That sounds neat.”  Well, what an understatement.  This place is so much larger on the inside than we imagined, hosting 8,000 square feet of insects on display, both live and mounted.  We spent hours here and honestly, I could have spent even longer.

The vibrant beetles were my favorite.  My daughter most loved the live honeybee exhibit.  It was sandwiched between two plates of glass, so you could see the bees inside the hive.  The best part was that they could fly outside via a little tunnel.  One of the docents answered my daughter’s numerous questions and told me lots of things I didn’t know, too.

Another docent let my daughter hold this huge stickbug. 

There was even an enclosed garden where hundreds of butterflies were floating among the tropical plants.  This is the Great Yellow Mormon of the Philippines.  The Newfoundland Insectarium is only open seasonally, so check their website before you go.

A Newfoundland Welcome

EASTERN CANADA ROAD TRIP 2019

From Nova Scotia we took an overnight ferry to Newfoundland. That alone was an interesting experience. The ferry we had booked had been canceled, and so we were booked on the next one, but without the cabin. As we boarded, we found a row of seats to sit in, and tried to get comfortable enough to sleep. It was tough - they reclined but there was no footrest and it felt awkward. Somehow less comfortable than a plane, but I am not sure how, haha. But we got lucky and they called us up to the desk - we were given a cabin that fit all four of us. It was tight but clean, and we were so thankful that we all dropped off to sleep right away, as it was after midnight. I don’t normally sleep well in unfamiliar places, but not that night. I slept like a log.

We woke the next morning in time to get breakfast in the restaurant and watch our approach to Port aux Basques. We were happy to go down to our camper and find that Lyle had done just fine overnight. We gave him some medication to ease his separation anxiety so we were not too worried. But that was our first time leaving our pup alone in the camper so long. We drove off the ferry and stopped at a nearby rest stop to let him potty. This - the image above - was the view. It pretty much summed it up: ‘Welcome to Newfoundland. It’s spectacularly gorgeous here.’

Cavendish Beach, PEI

Eastern Canada Road Trip 2019

We stayed at the Cavendish Campground at Prince Edward Island National Park, which had easy access to the beach. My daughter and I went during the day to play, and had a great time exploring the iron-rich rocks at low tide. They were soft and ground easily, and we had fun making ‘paint’ and drawing designs with it on our bodies. She even painted my nails with it. We had a unique wildlife sighting, too, when a fox came down out of the dunes and sat on the beach for about 30 minutes, oblivious to the people who were observing.

I went back to the beach again, with my camera, for sunset. What I got instead was an impressive show as these clouds rolled in. They were headed directly for me, and for the campground which was behind me. I waited as long as I could - I was the last on the beach - and when I thought I was just ahead of the rain I ran back to my camper, which was probably a quarter of a mile away. As I came off the beach and looked both ways to cross the road, I saw the fox, doing the same. I figured my timing must be good if the fox was taking cover, too.