Gros Morne: Heading North

Sunrise walk with Shadow

   How fortunate we were to have a 3rd day with            good  weather, warm temperatures and no rain,            There are  more than 100 km of trails in the park.        We took on two  more as we started our drive  north     up the west  coast. 

  

 The Salmon Point Trail was an easy warm up, less than 1 km to views of the mouth of Bonne Bay, carved by glaciers. The trailhead  was at the end of Main St. S in Rocky Harbour, a single lane dirt road.

 

 We drove only a few km on Route 430 to the Coastal Trail, a very popular one. The 6 km return path 

follows the winter mail road which connected two small fishing communities. The trail passes cobble beaches  strewn with driftwood, through short stretches of dense coastal forests known as "tuckamore"  (trees stunted by the wind). There were beautiful coastal vistas, We met several hikers in both directions. It took us a little over two hours for the trek....many photo opportunities for me.

Wildlife sightings: several   small toads, a fuzzy caterpillar, one cormorant, and one shorebird (unidentified). 

We ate a late lunch in the parking lot before driving a short distance to Cow Head, a community of approximately 400, in the park. We are at Sea Breeze RV Park overlooking the ocean. We drove only  54 km. An early stop, before 3 p.m., allowed us to do a major house cleaning.