Gros Morne

Today was another beautiful day on the west coast- a mixture of sun and clouds and I think it topped out around 80 degrees. On July 4th I’m thinking about how nice it’s been to not be bombarded by American political news (or really anything American) for the past two weeks.

We headed north today into Gros Morne National Park to have a really good hike. Earlier in the trip we were able to take a shortish hike in Twillingate to the sea arch there. We had lots of options for what looked like great hikes around St. John’s including trails in the coastal hills that surround the city, but the weather put an end to that! We drove through Gros Morne last time we were here and were able to stop at several lookout points as well as the great interpretive centers at the north and south ends of the park. It covers almost 700 square miles on the central western coast and the unique natural landscapes of the park make it a UNESCO World Hertiage Site. The park includes fjords, baby glaciers, and jagged as well as rounded mountains to extend literally to the coastline.   

One of the most significant (and visually stunning) natural features of the park is the Tablelands area. We visited this landscape in 2022, including a short easy hike, and I blogged about how incredible it was and described the geology of the place so won’t go into it again. Short version is that the yellow/brown/barren terrain is material that was pushed up from the earth’s mantle (literally middle earth) and it butts right up against the alpine mountains that characterize the rest of the park. The road that splits the two landscapes sits in the bottom of a bowl-shaped valley that was carved out by glaciers. There is apparently nothing like this anywhere else on earth and to look at it you really feel like that’s gotta be true. Pictures don’t even begin to convey what it actually looks like, but here you go anyway.  

That 2022 post mentioned the nearby Green Gardens Trail which we didn’t have time to hike…until today! The trail is a little more than 6 miles roundtrip and crosses flat open meadows that have been used by the nearby Trout River residents to graze their sheep for generations. 


It’s an out-and-back trail so we knew going in that we’d be coming back the same way, and that the trail was “mostly” uphill on the way back. Suffice it to say that after crossing over a high meadow at the trailhead we pretty much just went down, down, down through the forest until we reached the high cliffs above the ocean. The wind was whipping (it IS Newfoundland, after all) and we started to get glimpses through the trees until we emerged back into meadow and one view more amazing than the next. It was also nice that for most of the time we didn’t see any other people!

Almost there!
The sea is in sight

A wild iris meadow šŸ˜

Check out that sea stack's vertical stratigraphy!



We took at break at the end of the trail in the ubiquitous red Adirondack chairs that can be found all over Newfoundland at just about every beautiful view. While there we enjoyed some delicious homemade peanut butter and stolen cheese whiz packet sandwiches. Before you get grossed out- think about peanut butter cheese crackers. They tasted just like that and were delicious.

I'm already thinking about how much uphill climbing we'll be doing shortly

After taking time to walk the beach and look at some pillow rock sea stacks, we began the hike back. It was a slog going up, up, up, up but we made it!

What’s the best way to celebrate the completion of a heart-healthy hike in the great outdoors? Drink a local beer on the water! We enjoyed these in the little town of Woody Point located just outside the park on Bonne Bay which is the only true fjord in Newfoundland!   


Bonne Bay with Gros Morne Mountain in the background

I can't believe it but tomorrow is our last day in Newfoundland!

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