Recommendations

Recommendations for someone hiking in Gros Morne and also wants some Newfie culture and see coastal communities.

1) When visiting Gros Morne stay in Norris Point Youth Hostel.  Has private bedrooms. Bathrooms only shared with 2 other rooms. Great kitchen and common area and deck. Used to be a hospital so lots of space.

2) If doing the Long Range Traverse hike (highly recommend if an experienced back country hiker) do in August when snow has melted and ponds warm up.  Harding Pond and Upper Green Island Pond have great camp sites. Be sure to bring ropes to tie tent to platforms.

3) Visit Lobster Cove lighthouse (near Rocky Harbour) for some history, great views and friendly Parks Canada staff.

4) Spend 2 nights in King’s Point to do all 3 hikes, enjoy food at the Inn, visit humpback whale exhibit, drive to Harry’s Harbour and go on boat tour with Garry. Ask for Roger at the Inn for a chat about local stuff. Lots of community volunteers efforts went into boardwalks and steps for trails and the  humpback whale skeleton. Windermere log cabins a great place to stay that overlooks the Harbour. 10 minutes from King’s Point in Rattling Brook. Also lots of well positioned camp sites. A great one in Rattling Brook beside the harbour and a creek.

5) Take the time to talk to many Newfies.  Very friendly and always up for a chat!

Day 7, King's Point back to airport in Deer Lake

Terrific early morning hike to summit of hills behind town.  Drive to Deer Lake for plane trip back home.

Summit on Alexander Murray Trail. Looking down on King's Point. Can see icebergs in the distance.

Jack at summit catching his breath. Looking out at headlands to North Atlantic.

Several waterfalls like this on the hike.

Day 6, Burlington - Green Bay - King’s Point

Headed back to King’s Point to take iceberg boat tour and hike their trails.

Largest humpback whale skeleton on display in the world in King's Point. Fascinating!

Iceberg boat tour. Before tour I swam in the bay close to an iceberg. Not many people can lay claim to that!

Caribou Trail hike.  No caribou but scenic walking along the bay.

Screech! With ice from iceberg in the harbour.

Day 5, Deer Lake to King's Point to Burlington, Newfoundland

Sightseeing

We spent most of the day with Scott and Chris from US. On a mission to see icebergs so drove to King's Point where Icebergtracker.com showed potential.

Iceberg at King’s Point

Icebergs at King’s Point

More!

Harry’s Harbour, cute fishing village

Burlington signs


Eagle looking out from glamping tent balcony in Burlington.

Glamping accommodation.  Called ‘Ome. A non profit organization headed by Newfie comedian Sean Ma’junger.  In it’s infancy so not the best facilities yet.

Day 4, 3rd day of Long Range Traverse in Gros Morne National Park

 Lower Green Island Pond to Gros Morne mountain parking lot.

A chilly morning so the first challenge of crossing icy cold river not an inviting activity!  Start out  rock hopping across river but rocks ended and  could not avoid going thigh deep in a the fast cold current.  Jack and I spent the day with the 8 American lawyers. Lots of ascents and descents till the final 700m decent over 7km. Celebrated our trip in Deer Lake with the Americans over beer and dinner.

Watched Americans cross the river first and ascend the steep snow bank.  A good thing as we learned from their craziness and crossed then waded upriver for a snow free ascent.

One of many “pond” vistas.

American lawyers plus Jack.

Long and kind of monotonous 7km hike down to parking lot on well marked trails

Finally a bridge! Manicured trails for last 7km descent.

Done

Teamwork!

Day 2, First day of Long Range Traverse

A fabulous day of adventure, scenery an challenge!
Met Melanie and Hugo (Quebecois couple) at finishing point and shared a taxi to the start of our adventure. Easy 3km walk to ferry. Ferry took us to base of fjord we were to climb.  Wow!  Stunning views of fjords with waterfalls. Ferry dropped us off at the most spectacular part of the cruise.   A strenuous climb of 600m elevation over 4 km through scrub rewarded by a magnificent view at the top.  Hiked with 2 other groups, the Québécois couple and a group of 8 lawyers from US, England and Australia. Lucky to have superb weather.

Ferry Ride on Western Brook Pond

Lots of snow to hike through at the top.

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Camp site on first night at Mark's Pond. Green toilet behind tents on and angle making for awkward position.

Start of hike.  Magnificent waterfall behind the boat. Aptly named Pissing Mare Falls 😏

Battling up the steep ascent.

Jack with 2 American lawyers hiking up the fjord.

View of Western Brook Pond from the summit.

Western Brook Pond ferry to LR6 (Mark’s Pond) Distance =13 km Elevation = 800 metres

Day 3, second day of Long Range Traverse in Gros Morne National Park

Mark’s Pond to Little Green Island Pond.

Windy, rainy, cold and a little scary.  Tough to find trails due to 50+% snow coverage so lots of navigation required. Beautiful flora and vistas and great company made it worthwhile.

Walked for 8+ hours and covered only 10.5km of trail. Day began walking through an icy cold stream up to thighs. Finished the day before the next major river crossing.  Set up tents in rain and 80km hour wind gusts. Tent kept blowing over so had to attach many extra ropes to keep it up. Not a pleasant experience with frozen hands and shivering body. Also not pleasant sitting on outdoor loo in the rain and wind...But all good once inside tent and eating Jack’s gourmet meal at 8:30pm.

Day begins with creek crossing...wet cold socks for the rest of the day!

Navigation conferring...lots of that.  I pretty much left it up to Jack and the Québécois (Melanie & Hugo)

Lunch at Harding's Pond on a tent platform.


Many snow covered hill climbs but scenic vistas.

A neat snow feature.

Too windy and cold to leave tent for photo.  Tents roped to platform...fingers crossed ropes and tent poles hold in 80km winds.

Day 1, Preparation for Long Range Traverse, Gros Morne National Park

Arrived by plane to Deer Lake NFLND at 2AM.  Rented car and drove 1.5 hours to Norris Point youth hostel. Made it to bed at 4AM. Despite middle of the night, one of the hostel managers met us and spent 30 minutes telling us about the town and showing us around the hostel which used to be a hospital.  An introduction to the extra friendly Newfies.  Looked around the scenic fishing villages of Norris Point and Rocky Harbour before our mandatory meeting with the park ranger. Julie, the park ranger, did her best to scare us off the trip with stories of black flies, chest deep snow, impenetrable tugamore, hypothermia and slippery snow packed mountains. Not scary enough for us hardy folk! :-)

At Lobster Cove lighthouse.  Gros Morne mountain in background.

Typical coastal scenery. Norris Point

Rocky Harbour

Pre dinner beer at Norris Point.

Iceberg beer brewed in St. John’s, Newfoundland.