We're looking forward to another day of our Newfoundland adventure, hosted by our nephew and niece that are living here now. We spent last night in the town of Deer Lake, and this morning we used the wild blueberries we picked yesterday to make pancakes.
That's a plate-full of yummy pancakes where we had lots of blueberries in every bite!
From our airbnb house on the lake, it's about an hour's drive to our destination for the day. The clouds are laying low on the mountains as we make our drive to Gros Morne National Park.
We are now on the western side of the island. While moose can be found all over Newfoundland, the warning signs are more frequent on this side of the province.
Caribou also live in the national park, and we would have loved to see them as well. But our trip today didn't have any wildlife sightings--only wildlife warning signs.
Our priority today is the West Brook Pond Fjord Boat Tour. While our hosts have lived here close to two years, they haven't been able to take this boat trip that always shows up at the top of "must-see-things-in-Newfoundland." Between lockdowns and forced distancing, the Canadian government has shut down most tourist attractions for the last year and a half. So we are excited that the boats are now sailing for our visit. It's a one-mile hike to the boat dock, but we paused for a picture at the start of the trail.
Since the sign says that there are bears in the area, we all put on our best scary bear faces in preparation for our hike.
It's still cloudy, and you can tell from our wardrobe that it is a little chilly this morning. But again, we're blessed with placid water for another boat ride.
We ate our picnic lunch where the line formed on the dock, and we were some of the first people to get to board our boat.
That scored us eight seats together on the top section of the boat.
Our boat first took us across West Brook Pond, which we found is actually a lake. By definition, a pond is smaller than a lake, and this body of water was definitely big enough to be classified as lake-size. So our tour should have really been name West Brook LAKE Fjord Tour.
Fjord is a word that doesn't show up in our conversation very often, because they aren't found in too many places in the world. A fjord is a long, narrow ocean inlet with steep sides or cliffs that were carved by a glacier. Our boat trip is taking us up a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, but it is no longer connected to the ocean. So instead of being in a "salt water fjord," we found out today that we are actually in a "fresh water sound." So now we are learning that we are actually on the West Brook LAKE SOUND tour, instead of the West Brook Pond Fjord Tour. What?!? Whatever the actual name, it's a beautiful place to be.
Definitions aside, the rock walls around us are up to 1,600 feet tall, and they made us feel very small.
On our boat ride, we were entertained by waterfalls cascading from the top of the fjord walls. The captain masterfully backed us in, for photo opportunities with the falls.
The narration also pointed out rock formations, like the man's profile found laying at the top of mountain beside us.
It's a ten-mile trip through these towering cliffs to get to the end of this fjord, and passengers on the boat are free to move around to get the best views and pictures.
We stopped at the dock at the very end to let two hikers and their very big backpacks disembark. We talked to these two guys earlier. They are taking the epic three-day hike along the tops of the mountains in Gros Morne national park.
This is the view that will show up on every Newfoundland travel brochure. So the boat backed up to the tip of the pond, and waited until every group on the boat got this classic picture.
We didn't get blue skies for our boat ride this morning, but it was still a beautiful view as the clouds hung on the tops of the fjord walls around us. We have wandered into another of God's wonders today!
On the ten-mile trip back to the dock, we were surprised when the narrator and first mate treated us to some Newfoundland folk music. Out of the 100 people on board the boat, Katrina was chosen to be their guest spoons player.
It was a fun trip down the fjord (or sound) to the pond (or lake), and we had lots of laughs along the way.
We all had hot chocolate to warm our hands and bellies as we made the one-mile hike back to the car.
In 2019, we visited 7 different Canadian national parks. We learned that they placed red adirondack chairs in front of the best views in the parks. So when we saw these tiny red chairs, we had to check out the view.
Gros Morne National Park is big, and it took an hour's drive to get to our next stop within the park. This area is called "The Tablelands" and we took off on the trail.
We normally see only the earth's crust, because the mantle is miles deeper towards the core of the earth. But in several places on the earth, a geological phenomena has left the mantle exposed. We are standing in the middle of the best place to see the earth's mantle in the entire world.
It's a little like walking on Mars because this rock layer is packed with minerals and metals that are inhospitable to plant growth. Its uniqueness makes it a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Over time, soil has covered some of the rocks, so shallow-rooted plants can survive. But the plant most likely to do well in this environment is a carnivorous plant that gets its nutrients from the bugs it traps. That is why this is one of the best places to find pitcher plants.
We learned that this is the provincial plant of Newfoundland. It digests the bugs it catches in its watery mouths so it can survive where few plants can.
We found a little water flowing down these barren mountain. But it was an unusually lifeless walk. One travel brochure listed it as the place where you can see the "soul of the planet."
After rock scrambling along the mountain, we finally joined the board walk for a much easier hike. Our hosts have visited here once before, but it was raining that day. We had perfect weather for this hike today!
At the end of the boardwalk is the best photo opportunity to prove that we visited the mantle of the earth.
The kids (and one really big kid) enjoyed jumping over these strange rocks in these strange tablelands.
It was a much easier walk when we all took the designated trail back to the car.
It was getting cooler and the sun was setting before we got off the trail. We hiked over eight miles today, and we're still amazed that little Cooper can walk that far. That Cooper is a trooper!
The sun was turning the clouds to pink as we made the one-hour drive back to our airbnb house on the lake. We have packed the maximum hours into our three days of exploring Newfoundland with our wonderful hosts. Today we have experienced things that few people see in a lifetime--we have wandered God's wonders of the mantle and the fjords!
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