Woody Point Things to Do Tips by Redlats

Woody Point - Services for Gros Morne NP

Woody Point is a typical Maritime fishing village -- only thing special about it, it is surrounded by a national park. That means it has four B&B's and a motel, restaurants and pub, tourist craft stores, school, etc, besides the normal fishing boats and a fish plant.

Unfortunately, we could not find a B&B with queen size beds, so we landed up staying in the motel -- one of the only times we stayed in a motel on our trip. After staying in B&B's the past week, we realized that we preferred the interactiveness of the B&B's.

The motel seemed too impersonal, although we did hear from the motel clerk that there had been a huge undercover sting in the town a couple of days earlier where the RCMP (police) had confiscated a number of boats and vehicles of locals who had been fishing out of season AND selling the fish to others. I guess it has been the talk of the town since it happened.

I watched the sun come up over the mountains on the north side of the fjord, but the photo does not do justice to the feelings of a sea-side sunrise in small town Newfoundland.

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Trout River Pond Boat Tour

About thirty of us tourists sailed on the Trout River Pond boat tour. For 2 and 1/2 hours, the ship follows the shore of interpretation cruise (English and French) on the Trout River Pond - a 15km long fjord -- at least it once was a fjord, now it is a fresh water lake.

The pond (lakes in Newfoundland are often called ponds) lies in the valley between the Tablelands and the massive cliffs on the Gregory Plateau. The boat tour features many of the geological features that make this park so unusual. You almost had to be a geology major to appreciate the different rock formations that they showed us.

As we were there in September, the cruises only ran once a day (at 1pm). Personally, I felt that the operators had sort of lost their enthusiasm for the job. It had rained heavily enough the day before our tour that the lake had risen 5 feet overnight. That meant that in a couple of places, the boat stopped, the cruise director read the spiel for that stop, but the rock formations that we were supposed to be looking at happened to be 5 feet under water.

Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience. Cruise tickets in 2004 cost $30 Cdn per person, tickets are available at the Gros Morne N.P. Interpretive centre.

Address: The tour leaves from the town of Trout River

Website: http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nl/grosmorne/index_e.asp

Hiking near the Tablelands

As with most national parks, Gros Morne NP has numerous trails (20 day hikes are listed, ranging from half-hour strolls to strenuous day hikes) including trails to the top of the Tablelands.

As we did not allow enough time to tour the park properly, we were limited to a couple of the day hikes. One that we enjoyed was the Tablelands Trail. This 4km trail follows an old road from the parking lot (1 km of boring), then climbs slightly to the entrance of Winterhouse Brook Canyon at the base of the Tablelands.

Hiking through the brown rocks is interesting. Unless you are next to the brook, there is no sound. Because this land is from the earth's mantle, plants have difficulty growing on it. No plants means no animals -- not even birds, so it is quite desolute. The other issue is that we found at the top of the hike - it was difficult to decide where the trail actually was. With no ground cover other than the brown rocks, marking the trail was not easy.

However you can see from my picture that nature is always trying. Near the brook there is enough moisture that some hardy grasses grow - poisonous mantle rock or not. However, step away from the brook, and only the odd plant survives.

Address: Tablelands trail starts 4km from the Discovery Ctr

Gros Morne National Park - South

Gros Morne National Park is a World Heritage site primarily because of the Tablelands - an ancient mountain range which was created when tectonic plates collided, and one plate got shoved up over another one.

We enjoyed our day and a half in the southern half of the park. We included activities such as hiking at the base of the barren Tablelands, a cruise on an inland pond, exploring the Discovery Centre (the park's visitor centre) and soaking up the feel of the small sea-side fishing village of Woody Point.

The entrance fee is complicated - because there are a number of choices. You can pay a daily rate (2004 charge was $15), a weekly Viking Trail pass ($67), or yearly park & historic site pass ($119).

Directions: Gros Morne National Park is on Highway 430 -- you have to go through the park on the way to L'Anse aux Meadows, no matter where you start when you arrive on Newfoundland.

Website: http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nl/grosmorne/index_e.asp