Gros Morne - Part I

 

Gros Morne - the mountain the park is named for

Gros Morne National Park lies on the western side of Newfoundland, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with dramatic scenery shaped around 1,200 million years ago by colliding continents and grinding glaciers.

We camped for three nights at a private campground in Norris Point, where we biked, hiked, and ferried our way around the central part of the park – seeing just a tiny slice of the 1,805 square kilometres of land inside this protected area.

Bike and Ferry to Woody Point

Main Street - Woody Point

Hiking the Burnt Hill Trail

View of Neddy Harbour from the top of Burnt Hill

D has a funny saying, which turned out to be not so funny for us. “Why don’t you see any moose in Newfoundland? Because they’re hiding in the potholes!” True, visitors to Newfoundland rarely see these majestic creatures (they are shy, I guess). And true, the potholes can be so large that the moose can actually fit in some of them!

Driving along the highways here in Newfoundland, it can be difficult to miss the potholes since there are so many of them. We may have hit a few too many, and one of our front tires started to develop a strange warble. Concerned that any more potholes may be the death of our good friend Stevie the RV, D looked in to having the front tires replaced. Turns out the only ones that would fit Stevie were in St. John’s – clear across the province, 708 kilometres away.

The wonky, warbly tire

So off we went. We’ll save the rest of Gros Morne for later.