NEWFOUNDLAND – GROS MORNE NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH.
Day 149 – 42 degrees this morning, it was clear & breezy when we got up. Since we sat around yesterday & tomorrow we have to take the Honda back to get work done on it, a three-hour drive round trip, today was a good day to check out the Park south of us. Furthermore, the weather forecast beginning tonight is rain for days.
We packed our lunches & headed out, driving south on Route 430. It was windy but the sun was out – a beautiful day for a drive. We stopped at every scenic turn-out we passed, and there were many. Previously, we’d either been in the RV when we went by or driving the car in to Corner Brook to be worked on. There were many trails for hiking up into the hills. Lots of people were parked at the trail heads.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
We continued on the 430 until we reached Route 431 where we drove west & entered new territory for us. This route is still part of the National Park; the scenery was gorgeous. There was more fall color in this area, not a lot, but the beginnings of it. The 431 ends at the Trout River which runs out to the sea. The town of Trout River is there, also. At times the 431 went through small towns sitting on the banks of the Bonne Bay. (We saw these towns from the boat tour. From the town of Woody Point, you are looking back at Neddy Harbour across the bay. This was the town we took the boat tour out of & the town where we had that great dinner. By ferry, they are 15 minutes apart. By road, it takes over an hour to reach the other town.) There were two out of five National Park campgrounds on this route; both were closed for the season, but we were able to drive through enough of the Parks to know that we would stay there if they were open. We also checked out three independent campgrounds on this route. All were good enough for us to return to when the fall colors reach their peak. We took pictures of the scenery in several of the towns. Woody Point stands out as a really nice little town in a very scenic location. We ate our lunch there at an overlook point looking out on the Bay. A Zodiac Boat Tour runs out of Trout River; it is closed for the season. Tablelands is one of the more popular attractions of Gros Morne. You certainly know the Tablelands when you see them. They are a group of mountains with a completely different look than everything around them. There are guided hikes up to the top, or you can hike around there by yourself. These mountains are flat on top, like a table, duh, but there is no foliage whatsoever on them & the soil is a completely different type than everything else around them. The rocks, too, are different completely. It was like you suddenly found yourself in the southwest U.S.
We drove back the way we came, stopping at the Norris Point KOA campground to drive through and check out the campsites. It would work out well when we come back up for the fall colors. (Most of the campgrounds at Gros Morne are closed by October, so this was one reason we stopped by these places to see what would be open when we were here later.) We got back to the RV at around 3:30. The high today was 63 degrees. Rob went on a quick hike up Berry Hill, wanting to get the views from the hill by our current campground. I’m sure he was inspired by all the hill hikes & trails we saw today, and after the rain starts again tonight, we think it looks like it will rain for a week. Better to catch the scenery now!
We had an early dinner of the Shrimp Tacos we made yesterday. We’ll have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to make our 7:30 a.m. appointment with the car. Ugh. Although tomorrow won’t be fun, we had an excellent day today.