Newfoundland
The eastern-most point in Canada and North America is Cape Spear on the island of Newfoundland. Officially, it is known as the province of Newfoundland and Labrador which joined the Canadian Federation in 1949. Newfoundland is 42,038 square miles making it the 15th largest island in the world. Labrador is part of the mainland and borders Quebec to the south. Along Newfoundland’s 6,000 miles of coastline, humpback whales feed near shore, millions of sea birds nest, and 10,000-year-old icebergs drift past picturesque fishing villages. Old Irish, French, and English accents and customs are common throughout Newfoundland. In addition to the magnificent coastal views and stunning landscape, Newfoundland is also known for being home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Gros Morne National Park and L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.
In order to reach Newfoundland, you have to either fly or take a ferry departing from North Sydney, Nova Scotia. On my trip over to Newfoundland, I took the 6-hour ferry to Port aux Basques and my return was on the 16-hour ferry out of Argentia back to North Sydney. Once on Newfoundland, visitors will find that is has a good road network with the Trans-Canada Highway (NL-1) traversing the island from Port aux Basques in the southwest to St. John’s in the east.
Gros Morne National Park
Located on the western shore of Newfoundland on what is known as the Great Northern Peninsula, Gros Morne National Park is celebrated for its unique geological origins and spectacular scenery. The park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 for providing a rare example of the process of continental drift, where deep ocean crust and the rocks of the earth’s mantle lie exposed. The name Gros Morne comes from French, meaning “big isolated hill” or “great somber mountain” and refers to Mount Gros Morne which stands at 2,644 feet in the middle of the park. The park is split into northern and southern sections by the scenic deep fjord Bonne Bay. Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep cliffs carved out by a glacier and filled with ocean water. Bonne Bay is just one of many current and former fjords within the park’s boundaries.
The northern portion of the park’s coast has an unusual mix of sand beaches, rock pools, and trails through tangled dwarf forests. Many of the trees in Gros Morne are short in statue due to rocky soil, high snow loads, and persistent strong winds off the Gulf of St. Lawrence. One great example of this landscape is along the 3.5-mile Coastal Trail which hugs the coastline. Other common features of the Gros Morne landscape are the numerous ponds (known as kettle ponds) and bogs which are telling tales of a heavily glacial history in the region. During my stay at Gros Morne National Park, I stayed at Shallow Bay which features a 2-mile-long sand beach and, as the name implies, a very shallow bay for wading out into the chilly gulf water.
No visit to Gros Morne National Park is complete without a visit to Western Brook Pond. Although once technically a fjord (glacially carved ocean inlet), over thousands of years Western Brook Pond has become cutoff from the ocean and the pond is now freshwater. The pond is about ten miles long so the best way to experience it is on a 2-hour boat cruise which traverses its length. After a 45-minute scenic hike from the parking area, you arrive at the boat dock. Once onboard, visitors are treated to a spectacular glacier-carved land-locked fjord, waterfalls cascading from 2000 feet that often turn to mist before reaching the pond, and billion-year-old cliffs. The views from the boat on Western Brook Pond are truly breathtaking and well worth the price of the cruise.
Getting around Gros Morne National Park is easy on NL-430 which traverses the length of the Great Northern Peninsula all the way to St. Anthony on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Driving the highway takes you through scenic villages such as Rocky Harbor, Sally’s Cove, and Cow Head which has a summer theater program. At the entrance of Bonne Bay is the historic Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse which is a great place to view sunsets over the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The southern section of the park is defined by the Tablelands, a unique rock massif that was raised from the earth’s mantle rock billions of years ago. This geological phenomenon is rarely seen on the earth’s surface and is the main reason Gros Morne received UNESCO World Heritage Site status today.
L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
Another UNESCO World Heritage Site on Newfoundland was designated to recognize a major achievement in human history rather than geological splendor. On the northern most tip of Newfoundland at a place called L’Anse aux Meadows (pronounced lans-oh-med-ohz), a Viking expedition from Greenland established the first European settlement in North America around 1,000 years ago. That is almost five hundred years before Columbus sailed to the Americas!
The Norse were Scandinavians of the medieval period who were primarily farmers and traders. For a few Norse men, raiding became a common way of gaining wealth and fame. The term viking, meaning raider or pirate in the Old Norse language, is properly used to only describe men who were engaged in raiding. Therefore, not all Norse were Vikings but all Vikings were Norse. Be that as it may, the period from 800 to 1050 AD is often referred to as the Viking Age. Similarly, we live in the Space Age, but few of us are astronauts. The terms Norse and Viking are often used interchangeably, and I’ll probably do the same as Viking does sound better!
Exiled from Iceland for three years for multiple murders, Norse leader Eirik the Red sailed west to explore a land that had been reported for decades. Around 985 AD, he persuaded fellow Icelanders to join him in this new land we know today as Greenland. They found pastures for their sheep and cattle, but the land had little soil and Greenland had no trees. Wood was vital to the Norse for building boats, houses, and tools, and it was expensive to import wood from sources in Europe. By about 1000 AD, the population on Greenland was about 500 people.
According to the Norse Sagas (a detailed oral and written history of the Norse people), the first Viking to sight North America was Bjarni Herjólfsson who was a merchant who was blown off course while traveling from Iceland to Greenland. Although he did not land, upon reaching Greenland he reported a forested country only nine days’ sail away. Over the next fifteen years, am expedition was put together to explore this unknown land. According to legend, originally Eirik the Red was going to lead the expedition, but a broken leg sidelined him and he assigned his son, Leif Eiriksson, as leader of the voyage. Vikings primarily navigated by using landmarks as references as they had no modern navigational tools. Eiriksson would have followed the coast of Greenland and then crossed the North Atlantic at the Davis Strait. The first landmass that Eiriksson and his crew would have encountered was Baffin Island. Following the shoreline south into present-day Labrador, the Norse found endless forests, lots of animals, and long sandy beaches. Due to the heavily wooded area, they named the new land Markland. They continued to sail south until they arrived at a strategic location, within sight of Labrador and near the entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle which could serve as an important navigational landmark. The Vikings had landed on the northern tip of Newfoundland at present day L’Anse aux Meadows around the year 1000 AD.
Under Leif Eiriksson’s leadership, the group of 60-90 people set up a sturdy encampment that served as an over-wintering base for exploring to the south via the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The sod and timber structures they built were classic Norse long-houses which had multiple rooms that served as communal sleeping quarters, kitchens, and workspaces. The Vikings at L’Anse aux Meadows also constructed the first furnaces in North American for smelting iron from ore they gathered in the area. Their blacksmiths would primarily create rivets for shipbuilding, but they also made iron tools for the community. During the winter months, they would make repairs to their sails and boats that they had hauled into indoor sheds. The summer months were spent sailing south into a region they called Vinland in search resources like hardwood lumber. Based on archeological evidence discovered at the site, it is believed that the Vikings travel in Vinland stretched as far south as Nova Scotia and the east coast of New Brunswick where they found wild grapes. Although it is quite possible that the Vikings encountered some of the indigenous people of Vinland, no evidence of such meetings has survived over the centuries.
After a decade or two in Vinland, the cost of the enterprise to bring timber back to Greenland was just not sustainable. The base at L’Anse aux Meadows was abandoned and the buildings were burned by its inhabitants before they returned to Greenland. The tales of voyages west of Greenland lived on in the oral traditions of the Vikings, passing from generation to generation, until the Vinland sagas were written down in the late 1200s. Following research of the Norse Sagas, Norwegian explorer and writer Helge Ingstad was drawn to L’Anse aux Meadows in 1960 to further his investigation of a Viking settlement in North America. Local fisherman George Decker led him to what locals claimed was an old Indigenous camp. Ingstad immediately recognized the mounds as the remains of a Norse long-house and called in his archeologist wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, to conduct a multi-year excavation of the site. The archeologists recovered numerous artifacts including a bronze Norse cloak pin, a small wooden spindle whorl for spinning yarn, and iron boat nails which provided definitive proof of an 11th century Norse presence in North America.
Following this historic discovery, L’Anse aux Meadows was designated a Canadian National Historic Site in 1975 and then a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The site has a wonderful visitor center that tells the story of the Norse migration from Greenland to North America. It also displays a large number of the artifacts recovered during the archeological excavation of the L’Anse aux Meadows in the 1960s that ultimately proved the Vikings had settled there. As you walk down the boardwalk towards the settlement site, you pass through a bronze sculpture titled “Meeting of Two Worlds” which depicts the meeting of the Norse with the indigenous people of North America. At the archaeological site, there are earthen mounds which indicate the location of the original Norse buildings including three halls, several small huts, and a furnace used for smelting iron. Finally, at the end of the trail, you arrive at the recreated Viking encampment of L’Anse aux Meadows with its impressive large hall as the centerpiece. The six feet thick sod walls and sod-covered timbered roof provided the Vikings with excellent insulation from the cold winters. The one thing that impressed me about the building’s design is how toasted it was inside with just small fires and I could see how it would be perfect for the long winters. The large hall consisted of four distinct rooms: a sleeping area, a work area, a kitchen and banquet room, and a woman’s work area. Each of the rooms is beautifully decorated with period correct items and there are even living history performers who share the story of life at L’Anse aux Meadows one thousand years ago.
Just a few miles down the road from L’Anse aux Meadows is a recreated Viking village and port of trade called Norstead. Although this site has no historical significance, its structures and living history performers give visitors a really good sense of life in an 11th century Viking community. The living history site has a large hall, church, and blacksmith building. The most impressive thing at Norstead is the 54-foot replica of a Viking merchant ship (called a knörr) named the Snorri. The ship was built by Maine shipbuilder Robert Stevens and is constructed of oak, pine, tamarack, and locust wood fastened with iron rivets. The Snorri is famous for having retraced Leif Eiriksson’s historic voyage from Greenland to L’Anse aux Meadows. In 1998, an eight-man crew departed Nuuk, Greenland on June 28th and completed the 1,800-mile journey by landing at L’Anse aux Meadows eighty-seven days later. Obviously, the Vikings were more skilled at sailing this ancient ship because they typically completed the same trip in under fourteen days!
Gander
On September 11, 2001 as terrorists attacked New York City and the Pentagon, all North American airspace was shut down forcing all planes in the air to land at the nearest airport. For some 38 planes over the North Atlantic, they were ordered to land at Gander, Newfoundland. A total of 6,500 people from 95 countries took refuge in Gander for six days swelling the town’s population by 70%. The residents of Gander displayed heroic hospitality by providing sleeping accommodations, food, clothing, toiletries, and even a birthday party for children having birthdays that week.
In the aftermath, letters of gratitude poured in from around the world and New York City even donated pieces of steel from the World Trade Center for memorials in Gander. I have always been emotional thinking of the overwhelming generosity and humanity displayed by the people of Gander on one of America’s darkest days. It was an honor to visit their community.
Terra Nova National Park
Terra Nova National Park is located on the northeast coast of Newfoundland along several inlets of Bonavista Bay and is Canada’s most easterly national park. Established in 1957, Terra Nova was the first national park in Newfoundland and Labrador. The park got its name from the Portuguese who sailed in the region and named it “terra nova” which means “new land” in Latin. The protected area covers 155 square miles of rugged coastal fjords, boreal forest, and indented Atlantic coastline located just off the Trans-Canadian Highway.
Long before the arrival of Europeans, the Indigenous people lived at Terra Nova for over 5,000 years utilizing the coastal waters and interior forests. The first European explorer in the region was John Cabot who made landfall in the area during his 1497 expedition to North America under the commission of England’s King Henry VII. During the 19th century, European presence in the region expanded significantly as the timber and sawmill industries utilized the rich boreal watersheds of Newman Sound and surrounding inlets. Settlers established coastal communities where they fished during the summer/fall and then harvested timber during the winter/spring using the sound to transport the timber once the sound thawed.
Newman Sound is at the heart of Terra Nova National Park. Along the shores of this large ocean inlet guests will find the park’s visitor center, day use areas, numerous trails, and a modern campground. While I was at Terra Nova, I stayed at the large Newman Sound Campground which had RV hookups and proved to be a good central location to explore the park. There were several great hiking trails near my site including the Campground Trail which follows beautiful Big Brook before gaining elevation which offers beautiful views of Newman Sound. Another great trail that I hiked was the Coastal Trail which hugs the shoreline of Newman Sound for 6 miles between the campground and visitor center. Many guests come to Terra Nova National Park to hike and paddle which makes Sandy Pond a must destination. The 1.8-mile gentle loop around the tranquil waters of Sandy Pond offers some of the best views of the boreal forest in the national park.
St. John’s
St. John’s, Newfoundland is one of North America’s oldest European settlements. It is believed that explorer John Cabot first sailed into the natural harbor on June 24, 1497 which is St. John the Baptist’s feast day, thereby contributing to the settlement’s name. Throughout the early 1500s, Portuguese and English fisherman used the protected harbor to exploit the abundant cod fisheries of the North Atlantic. In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed St. John’s under a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I, establishing England’s first overseas claim. It quickly grew from a seasonal fishing camp into a major British naval and commercial center with settlers arriving throughout the 1600s and well into the 1700s.
The St. John’s Harbor is not particularly large (1.25 mile long and 0.5 mile wide), but it is one of the best naturally protected harbors on the North Atlantic. The entrance to the harbor is a narrow channel that is only 200 feet wide and it is flanked by Signal Hill and Southside Hill which provides protection not only from the elements, but also attacking forces. St. John’s fended off numerous attacks from the Dutch and French who both sought the strategic Atlantic location and rich cod fisheries. The British established several batteries at the mouth of the narrows to defend the harbor. Located on Southside Hill, Fort Amherst was constructed by the British in 1772 to help defend the St. John’s harbor and was later used by Canadian military forces during both world wars.
Towering over the city of St. John’s and the harbor is the iconic Signal Hill. The first fortifications were constructed there in 1697 by the British to defend against attack by the French. Its commanding view of the Atlantic and the narrow channel entering the harbor made it the perfect location for gun emplacements, or batteries, for almost three centuries. In 1762, the French attacked and captured Signal Hill, but only to lose it a few days later following a British counterattack. During 1796-97 the Queen’s Battery was constructed with eleven guns mounted, in addition to a guardhouse which housed the artillery troops and their families. Signal Hill was fairly quiet until the outbreak of World War I when St. John’s became a key port for shipping supplies and troops to Europe. Again, Signal Hill and Fort Amherst were tasked throughout the war with protecting the harbor from possible enemy attack which now included the threat of U-boats.
During the early years of World War II, the Allies lost over 2,000 merchant ships to German U-boats in the Atlantic prior to 1943. The naval tactic of destroyer escorted convoys of merchant ships is what ultimately turned the tide and decimated the U-boat fleet. Merchant ships would gather in the North Atlantic where they would be joined by American and British warships based out of St. John’s which now played a major role in the war effort. The risk of attack by U-boats on St. John’s was real and, in fact, German submarine U-587 fired three torpedoes at the harbor on March 3, 1942. Fortunately, the torpedoes struck the cliffs just below Signal Hill and caused no damage. In order to beef up defenses of St. John’s Harbor, American troops arrived in St. John’s in 1941 where they had a base called Fort Pepperrell out by Quidi Vidi Lake and manned gun positions on Signal Hill and Fort Cape Spear (more on that later).
Constructed in 1900, the stone Cabot Tower located on Signal Hill was built to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of John Cabot’s landing in Newfoundland. The tower was designed and used as a flag signaling tower, serving that function until 1958. As part of that signal tradition, a cannon is fired from Cabot Tower daily and heard throughout St. John’s to mark noon to this day. Fittingly, on December 12, 1901, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi successfully received the world’s first transatlantic wireless signal atop the old hospital at Signal Hill. This historic communication traveled roughly 2,100 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from its transmission site in Cornwall, England. Today, Signal Hill and Cabot Tower are protected as a Canadian national historic site and is the most visited attraction in St. John’s.
Cape Spear, just south of St. John’s, has the distinction of being the easterly most point in North America. From the cliffs overlooking the North Atlantic at Cape Spear, you can watch the sun rise over North America, observe whales feeding in the early summer, or spot icebergs floating by during the spring. The first lighthouse began operating at Cape Spear in 1836 and was the first light on the east coast of Newfoundland. For decades, the lighthouse was manned by members of the Cantwell who kept the light burning to provide safe navigation into St. John’s Harbor. After over a century of service, the original wooden Cape Spear Lighthouse was replaced by a modern concrete one in 1955 and it remains in service to this day.
During the Second World War, the Cape Spear Lighthouse site was transformed into Fort Cape Spear. Manned by both Canadian and American forces, this strategic coastal defense battery was designed to protect the narrow entrance of St. John’s Harbor from German U-boats and enemy attacks during the Battle of the Atlantic. The heavy gun emplacements were linked via underground concrete tunnels and passages to secure ammunition magazines and equipment rooms. Established in 1962, the Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site preserves the history of the historic lighthouse as well as the bunkers that played a key role in the Battle of the Atlantic. In addition to spectacular views of the eastern most shores of North America, the site has trails, museums, and a café to meet the needs of numerous tourists.
In the vicinity of St. John’s are several quintessential fishing villages that are a must see when visiting the region. Just south of Cape Spear is the picturesque fishing village of Petty Harbor. The fishing fleet and co-op processing facility are part of Newfoundland’s profitable cod industry. For several years now, Petty Harbor has been a popular filming location for numerous movies and television programs due to its dramatic coastal landscape and traditional saltbox houses. The exact origins of the name Quidi Vidi are unknown, but this small, scenic fishing village is famous for its narrow streets and art galleries. The nearby Quidi Vidi Lake hosts the annual Royal St. John’s Regatta which features fixed-seat rowing races. The Regatta is North America’s oldest-running sporting event and a civic holiday in St. John’s.
One of the charming characteristics of Newfoundland, and really all the Maritimes, is the vibrant colors of the houses seen all throughout the region. Nowhere is this more on display than a neighborhood in St. John’s known as Jelly Bean Row located on King’s Road. There are numerous explanations for the colorful paint schemes of the houses. One prevailing theory is that years ago, fishermen painted their boats the same color as their homes. By using a wide selection of vibrant colors that were easier to spot, loved ones could identify their family members returned from the sea. Another theory presented to me by an Irish-Newfoundlander was that the colors helped men returning from a night at the pubs to identify their homes. Whatever the origin, the colorful neighborhoods are a symbol of St. John’s as seen through their artwork and souvenirs.
Modern St. John’s has been the provincial capital since Newfoundland and Labrador joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949. The discovery of oil in the Grand Banks of the Atlantic in 1979 has transformed St. John’s into the offshore petroleum industry. Today, there are several large offshore drilling operations producing over 200,000 barrels of oil per day, including the Hibernia oil project which began production in 1997 just 200 miles southeast of St. John’s. The harbor is home to a fleet of vessels which service the offshore rigs and divert the occasional North Atlantic iceberg which gets to close to a offshore rig.
Castle Hill National Historic Site
Located on the southwestern shore of the Avalon Peninsula, the village of Placentia was first settled by Basque fishermen in the 1600s. Placentia, or Plaisance as known by the French, was the center of French Newfoundland and its rich cod fishery. Cod remained a valuable food source for the French, British, and Portuguese for centuries because it could be preserved so well when dried and salted. That meant it could be shipped back to Europe without spoilage. In 1693, the French constructed Fort Royal on a strategic hilltop overlooking Placentia to defend the harbor against English attacks. The star-shaped fort was built with features such as earth ramparts, bastions, powder magazines, and masonry redoubts. Additional detached defensive features such as the Gaillardin Redoubt helped to strengthen the garrison’s position.
After occupying the fort for about twenty years, the French ceded Fort Royal, along with Placentia, to the British under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The British renamed the site Castle Hill and used the strategic high ground, constructing new blockhouses and redoubts, to secure the valuable fishery. With regional conflicts subsiding and shifting borders, the strategic value of Caste Hill was lost and the British eventually abandoned it around 1811. Today, the site is a Canadian national historic site designated to protect the distinct footprints of both French and British defensive strategies. The visitor center displays numerous artifacts recovered from the site and there are trails which allow guests to explore the fortifications which have been reconstructed.
Ferry: Argentia, Newfoundland to North Sydney, Nova Scotia
At the conclusion of my 16-day visit to Newfoundland, I had booked myself on the overnight ferry from Argentia, located on the southwestern coast of the Avalon Peninsula, back to North Sydney. The ferry terminal at Argentia was once part of a U.S. Navy base on Newfoundland between 1941 and 1994. In addition to the ferry terminal, Argentia is the site where they construct the large offshore oil drilling platforms before towing them out to sea. The ferry for my crossing was named the Ala’suinu which means “traveler” in Mi’kmaw. It was a very modern vessel with lots of amenities and my 2-berth cabin was comfortable with a private washroom with shower. The passage out of Placentia Bay was very scenic and several pods of dolphins were spotted from the upper Sun Deck. After a smooth crossing and restful night, I arrived back in Nova Scotia the next morning in time to explore the historic Fortress of Louisbourg.
