Arches Provincial Park, Western Brook Pond, Moose Sightings & General Observations

If you’ve read past posts in this blog, you know I am now a fan of moose burgers. While I was not able to talk any of the kids into trying this new favorite of mine, Alex decided that he did indeed want to try moose toast.

It has finally happened. We have spotted moose. We can now go home happy, with only icebergs not crossed off our must see list. It was bound to happen, with Newfoundland having 6 moose per square kilometer. We spotted two or three of them (I saw two, Peggy saw three and the kids saw somewhere between one and a couple of dozen – if you count the ‘I think I saw’s). We, of course, did the tourist thing and stopped the car and ran up to it and took some pictures. Mike tried to climb it and ride it like a horse, but we thought maybe that wasn’t a good idea. OK, maybe we stayed in the car, at a safe distance, (I added that so the grandparents won’t panic) and took some pictures. They were big and couldn’t really care less if we were there or not. It was good to get the moose thing out of the way as we thought we might have to leave this place not having seen one.

We purchased our tickets for the Western Brook Pond boat tour. They sometimes cancel due to weather, so you buy the tickets at the last minute. We decided to go early and drive up past Western Brook and Cow Head (who thinks up these names) to Arches Provincial Park. The Arches Provincial Park is situated along the Viking Trail on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland and just north of Gros Morne National Park. It is easy to tell how this place got its name, as it is a natural rock archway, which was created through constant tidal action. The kids thought it was really cool to be playing UNDER this huge rock structure. Of course, there was more rock reclamation as the kids must throw rocks back into the Atlantic at every opportunity. Our stay there was too short as we had to head back for our boat tour.

Once we arrived at the parking lot there was a 45 minute hike to the dock. A board walk trail carries you over the fragile coastal plain, once located below sea level. Western Brook Pond fjord in Gros Morne National Park provides a dramatic setting for a boat ride. The Long Range Mountains, the northernmost extent of the Appalachians, contain numerous glacially-carved fjords. One of the most spectacular is the Park’s largest lake, Western Brook Pond. This 16 km lake with a depth of 165m is home to Atlantic Salmon, Brook Trout and Arctic Char, as well as an unusual colony of cliff nesting gulls. Some of the cliffs rise to over 717m – the CN Tour is 555m. This famous tour has been featured in National Geographic magazine and on it’s television program. It was quite simply spectacular. It was easy to lose perspective on just how high some of these cliffs were. We even managed to spot a black bear on shore. This only added to the list of wildlife we have seen on this trip.

Tomorrow is a long day on the road. So I will post once we have arrived in Clarenville.

General Observations:

• Jeremy has yet to go a day without spilling some portion of one of his meals on some article of clothing he is wearing. This may have lead, in some part, to that laundry situation I mentioned yesterday. A few days ago he was hours away from breaking his record – then desert got him at the last minute. It’s quite amazing actually to see this happening first hand.
• The titles of my posts seem to be getting longer – perhaps to entice you to keep checking
• If we have someone serve us in a restaurant, museum, gift shop, etc. we have seen that person again in town either walking around or working somewhere else. This seemed normal at first. But it keeps happening over and over again in each town we visit. It is starting to get weird.
• We’re eating lots of potatoes.