BLOG 15—Gros Morne National Park, Norris Point, Rocky Harbour and more!

Gros Morne National Park and all its included fishing communities is a real gem and we really enjoyed our 4 day visit starting 5/11! 

We had regular evening campfires--weather and time permitting

Our campground was the Gros Morne/Norris Point KOA about a mile from the Park Visitor Centre, where we saw an excellent park movie, displays of different areas of the Park and a very helpful information person, Cornelia!  

We decided to buy 2 Canadian National Park/National Historic Site annual passes which cost $57.90 for seniors and unlike the U.S. you need one for each person—that's expensive!  Gros Morne costs $8.30 per day for seniors!  But we intend to visit many of the National Park and National Historic Sites in Newfoundland and also in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as we eventually head south! We can also use our passes in New Brunswick and British Columbia after we get home so it should eventually pay off, we hope.

Gros Morne National Park is big—1805 sq. KM big, including 6 towns or fishing villages. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site primarily because of its incredible geology.  There is a huge variety of places to visit from lighthouses, shipwrecks, huge sea arches, a massive half billion year old rock landscape from the upper mantle of the planet normally tens of kilometers below the surface, quaint fishing villages, a great boat  tour of Bonne Bay and beautiful fjords. Our campground was in Norris Point, a town in the southern part of the Park, but central to many of the most visited places, like Rocky Harbour, Woody Point and Trout River. 

Beautiful views everywhere! The weather was cool and sometimes windy but didn't cooperate at all the day we went to the extreme southwest of the Park to some of the most scenic areas of Woody Point, the Tablelands and Trout River, when we had fog and light rain. Those photographs have a spooky feeling, as you will see!  So here's our photographic tour of Gros Morne—enjoy!

First, watch out for Moose but we never saw one!   Almost no wildflowers are out yet except coltsfoot, a yellow dandelion-looking plant that's everywhere!   Bonne Bay (pronounced Bon), described as “2 Arms and a Tickle” is the bay where the nearby towns of Norris Point and Rocky Harbour are  located.

A tickle is a sliver of water between islands or between an island and land—don't you like that term! Norris Point has a small fishboat harbor, the pier for the tour boat Emm-Cat and the Bonne Bay Marine Station,  a university marine research station with its research vessel, MV Perfect Storm.  

The view of the Tablelands across the bay in the Park is spectacular here!  There is a kayak rental place here for the usually calm bay waters.  We even saw a brave SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) rider, brave because of the icy cold water! 

Here's another shot of the Tablelands and the massive valley cut by glaciers 10,000 years ago.

On 5/12 our group went on a boat ride on MV Emm-Cat from Norris Point over to Woody Point then out to the point where Bonne Bay meets the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

The boat was comfortable but it was brisk outside on deck with the overcast and wind.  Bill, a crew member, narrated and told us the history of the area very well. We were particularly impressed with the geology on the outer point.  Here's a series of photographs of the cruise.  

We even got to spend about 10 minutes in the pilothouse with the Captain. We cruised the Woody Point waterfront for a few minutes while Bill told us more about the town and its waterfront historic district and lighthouse.  As we were getting close to Norris Point again, the Captain on squeeze box (called screech box here or button accordion) and 2 crew members played guitars and sang, danced and made jokes, while entertaining us.  A very good time!

We went to the town of Rocky Harbour several times because of restaurants, the Irving fuel station and best of all, the Fish Market.  First some photographs of why we think it's called “Rocky” Harbour—it is really Rocky!   

We spent part of late afternoon at the Fish Market and watched the sunset which was very nice here.

All of our group loved the fish market with everything fresh off the boat and very reasonable prices as you'll see in the next 3 photographs. 

The next day we drove to Woody Point, explored the one block historic district and had lunch at Merchants Warehouse, converted to look like a 50s diner with good food! 

Royal Canadian Legion building-bottom left              The  Merchant Warehouse diner on top                                         
 We were not able to buy the Iceberg beer here (made from 25,000 yr old iceberg water)   

Churches and street scene in Woody Point

After lunch we drove on to the Tablelands, high at 719 meters, with incredible geology where the plate tectonics theory was proven. The Park store sells a booklet on geology called “Rocks Adrift” and here's a quote from the Tablelands section--

“The Tablelands is the most important geological feature in the Park. … The yellow cliffs and eroded slopes of the Tablelands are peridotite from the upper mantle.  These dense rocks are tens of kilometres above their usual position in the Earth's mantle and their mineral composition is not conducive to plant growth. …  Water flowing through cracks has altered some of the original minerals to serpentinite, giving the rock a green snake-skin pattern.”

Despite the drizzle and heavy fog, we walked around and made photographs of the rocks, which were fascinating.  Here's a gallery of Tablelands shots.  This was one of the trip highlights! 

The Tablelands showing the yellow rock

Rocks with snakeskin appearance (peridotite)

We also drove to the end of the road to Trout River, another decent size fishing community. 

There is a Summerside with most of the houses and facilities and a Winterside, where the fishboat docks are located. Here is our gallery of Trout River.  

Trout River harbor scenes

We passed through Woody Point again and took more photographs.

We passed the road over to Gros Morne Mountain, the Park's namesake and high point at 806 metres!  It's a beautiful wide rounded mountain!

Ice and fog---a somber but mysterious day!

On 5/14 we all set forth in a convoy to the shipwreck of the SS Ethie.  It happened December 11, 1919 during a hurricane force wind of a winter storm and the Ethie came ashore just south of Martin's Point.  

Going down a long steep stairway to the beach was challenging but the beach itself was beautiful with sea polished stones everywhere but not so easy to walk on either.  Ninety-two passengers and crew were aboard but with help of the locals, all were safely brought ashore.  Ninety-six years later, the remains of this medium sized seagoing vessel are slowly dissolving, leaving only some large pieces of iron on shore and just off shore and a couple pieces of mechanical equipment.  It's certainly sobering to listen to the story of Ethie's final day that George read while Sharon held a photo of the vessel in better days.   

Beautiful colored rocks smoothed and polished by the waves

We drove north up to the town of Cow Head, the northern end of Gros Morne National Park. Their claim to fame is the 2008 “Tidy Town” Provincial Award Winner!! 

This harbor was interesting because there is a long harbor up the river for smaller fishboats as well as a big boat area and boatyard.  Very picturesque area!  There is an area of lobster holding pens where live lobsters go off the boat and into pens in the water of the bay and wait to be transported to market.  Warehouse Theatre here is active during the summer but not during our visit.  The Long Range Mountains are the snowy backdrop to this harbor.  

The lobster pots are kept in the water until picked up for shipping--other lobster pots on foreground

The Warehouse Theatre and WW1 Memorial with Newfoundland Bull Moose logo

Another stop was Lobster Cove lighthouse, we had seen in the distance from Rocky Harbour. It wasn’t open but a friendly female ranger told us that there were story boards all around and walking trails. The wind was blowing too much to do the trails but we read all the history of this 1898 lighthouse, guarding the entrance to Bonne Bay.

The whole Gros Morne area is very photogenic and we only wish we were there a week or two later when the snow melted and the trails are usable.  All the small towns and village were friendly, fun to visit and all a little different!  We'd love to come back again in a couple years in June!

Although still no moose, we saw our first group of caribou near Western Brook Pond.

There are so many interesting things to see along the road and in the small towns. Here are some more photographs.

A typical Newfoundland fishing dory