The Maritimes IX: Gros Morne National Park

 Gros Morne feels like Norway.  Its water-filled chasms are technically not fjords, because they don't empty into the sea, but they have granite cliffs and clear, frigid water just like fjords.  All of Newfoundland is beautiful, but Gros Morne is spectacular.

The marked trail on this map is similar to the path we took on our visit to Newfoundland.  We rode the 22 hour ferry from Nova Scotia to Argentia, on the south coast, and then drove to St. John's.  After a detour south to sail to St. Pierre, we drove north again along the marked Trans Canada Highway to visit Twillingate (just north of the "1" on the right side of the map) and west to Deer Lake, where we stayed overnight.  The next morning, we hiked into Gros Morne National Park.  After leaving that gorgeous spot, we drove south to Corner Brook to spend the night, and then caught the ferry back to Nova Scotia at Port aux Basques.  During our trip to Newfoundland in 2009, we drove all the way north to L'Anse aux Meadows to see the Viking settlement there.

 All over the Maritimes, we gazed out the windows of our B'n'Bs through lace curtains.  They seemed very European, whether French or English.

Dave is not a fan of B'n'Bs, and he pronounced the Out East B'n'B in Deer Lake, where we spent the night of August 23, 2018, our worst.  There were four bedrooms that shared two bathrooms, one of which was downstairs behind the kitchen.  I warned Dave that if he ventured out of our room to the bathroom in the middle of the night in his underwear, he might well run into a large lady in a bra and g-string.  That did not deter him.

 The B'n'B was in a lush spot along a lake and the fishcakes for breakfast were delicious.  That almost made up for the shared bathrooms.

We loved the musical performance in Twillingate, and so we tried another "Newfie"songfest in a bar at Rocky Harbor, a town near Deer Lake.  Newfie ballads honor the joy and danger of fishing, and of leaving home to seek work away from the island. 

To catch the 10 a.m. ferry into the Gros Morne "fjord", we started hiking the two mile trail to the dock while the morning fog was still lifting.  The play of light on mountains and lakes was magical.

We got only a taste of Gros Morne.  There are other breathtaking spots, like the one pictured above, which we are saving for next time.

During the afternoon of August 24, 2018, we drove south to Corner Brook, a manufacturing city (paper mills) in the middle of nowhere.  

We loved the old and very Victorian Glenmill Inn, which was actually a converted barracks for paper mill workers.

We ate one last fresh cod dinner in the wood-beamed dining room.

 The next day, August 25, 2018, we loaded our jeep onto the 6-hour ferry to Nova Scotia.

After all our days of driving and sightseeing, it was a luxury to just veg for six hours.  I munched Canadian chocolate bars and read magazines, while Dave watched CNN on his cell phone.