Gros Morne National Park, Southern Edition: RVing Newfoundland with Kids and Teens

1 Shares

travel dates: June, 2023

We live just north of Atlanta, in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. The southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail is just about an hour and a half from our house. Though the trail officially ends in Maine, the mountain range itself extends all the way to Newfoundland and ends with the Long Range Mountains along the western edge of the island, including the mountains that make up Gros Morne National Park.

We didn’t learn this until we got to Newfoundland, but in the end it was pretty cool to start this long trip near the beginning of the Appalachians and wind up near the end, for the first time in our many times up and down the east coast.

The mountains in Gros Morne aren’t particularly high, topping out around 2600 feet, but they’re beautiful: rugged, rocky green peaks rising dramatically up from the coastline.

The National Park is named for Gros Morne mountain, Newfoundland’s second highest peak, but it covers a huge area and has much, much more to see. The north and south sides of the park are split by Bonne Bay, so getting from one side to the other requires a long drive around. We split our time between two different campgrounds–one north and one south–and definitely recommend doing that if you can. And spending as much time as you can in the park as well. We ended up with over a week total, thanks to some last minute itinerary shuffling, and it was definitely not overkill. Our first stop was on the south side, where we spent three nights near the town of Woody Point at Water’s Edge RV Park. The north side of the park is more of the tourist hub, with the relatively bustling town of Rocky Harbour and the actual Gros Morne mountain itself, but there are a number of can’t miss things to see on the south side as well.

Our first stop in Gros Morne, on our arrival day, was the national park’s Discovery Centre, where you can get advice on touring park and check out the extensive exhibits about the geology of Gros Morne.

We also picked up an Xplorers book for Abe (Xplorers is the Parks Canada equivalent of the NPS’s Junior Ranger program). A note on paying admission to Canadian national parks: it’s hard to figure out. We had a Parks Canada pass, so we were covered here and all other Parks Canada sites, but…I have no idea where we would have paid the entry fees at Gros Morne otherwise. There are not booths with people collecting fees like you find at big US National Parks. At some smaller sites, they collect the fees when you go in, before you tour the site or museum, but there was no one obviously collecting fees when we went into the Discovery Centre, although I’m sure we could have paid someone there had we tried (i.e. had we not had a parks pass). Moreover, there are plenty of places in the park–trailheads, etc., where we could have gone directly without even seeing any park employees whom it was possible to pay. I don’t know; maybe everyone in Canada is so honest that no one would dream of hiking a trail without stopping by the Discovery Centre and finding someone to pay first. ANYWAY, that got to be a long digression.

Basically, you should stop by the Discovery Centre because the geology of Gros Morne, especially the Tablelands, is fascinating, and they do a good job of explaining it.

I watched a lot of YouTube videos and read a lot of blog posts about Gros Morne in the months before our trip, and they all talk about how you can walk on the Earth’s mantle in the Tablelands. A lot of them say things like, “it’s the only place on Earth where you can walk on the mantle!” I’m going to confess that even after carefully reading the information in the Discovery Centre, I’m a little fuzzy on the exact science here….but as near as I can tell, there are actually a number of other places where one can walk on the Earth’s mantle (as opposed to the crust, which is what we’re usually walking on), but such places are not usually as easily accessible as they are here in Gros Morne, being on the tops of mountains and such. This all has to do with plate tectonics, which the Tablelands were somehow or other important to helping scientists figure out back in the day (something to do with how the geology here is so similar to somewhere, like, really far away). I’m not very good at explaining it, which is why you should stop at the Discovery Centre before actually doing the Tablelands hike yourself.

The Tablelands hike is an easy 4 km return that takes you through the eerie landscape and to the glacially-carved Winter House Brook Canyon. They offer a guided hike in season, but we missed it because of our plumbing issues and had to do it on our own. The trailhead is just past the Discovery Centre on the road that leads to the town of Trout River.

Although the hike is flat and easy, following an old roadbed, Abe was grumpy and “tired” for most of the way in to the canyon.

Fun fact! My memory card crapped out on my after this day and ate all of my many, many photos. I paid a somewhat embarrassing amount of money (like I think around $80) for some software that recovered it for me. I had brought multiple lenses and everything that day!

We had stopped by the Discovery Centre right before the hike, upon the suggestion in Abe’s Xplorer book, to pick up a “stomach” for checking out pitcher plants. This turned out to be a little pipette that he could use to suck the contents out of a pitcher plant to see what the plant “eats” (we were told to make sure to return the contents after examining them so the plant wouldn’t be hungry). A whatever-they-call-rangers-in-Canadian-National-Parks came along while we were using ours and pointed out some other carnivorous plants that grow in the Tablelands.

By the time we made it to Winter House Brook Canyon at the end of the trail, Abe had rallied and decided he wanted to make it to the snow way up near the top. Dave agreed to head that way with him. Spoiler alert: they didn’t make it.

I just found this advice on Gros Morne’s website: “For experienced and prepared hikers, an off-trail trek up its steep slopes is one of the most unique hiking opportunities in eastern North America. Consult with park staff to select the best and safest route options.” Oops. Dave and Abe were very careful, of course. But this trail-less part of the area is all loose rock and fairly treacherous, so proceed with caution like the website says!

In the meantime, Gus and I had plenty of time to hang out and admire the scenery while waiting for them to come back. This is the prettiest part of the hike, with mountains all around and a lovely rocky stream running through the middle.

Here are more pictures from our Tablelands hike, because I paid a lot to get these back!

The other hike we heard a lot about on this side of the park is Green Gardens. And it sounds lovely. But it’s also fairly long, at 6.2 miles total (out and back), and it’s the sort of hike that’s all downhill (down to the ocean) on the way there, which means all uphill on the way back. And having just had a tough time motivating our 10 year old on a completely flat hike that was half as long in the Tablelands, we thought Green Gardens might be asking for trouble.

Then we read about the Eastern Point Trail in the town of Trout River and saw it referred to a couple of times as “little Green Garden.” Perfect!

We actually went to Trout River twice; it’s at the end of the road that goes past the Discovery Centre and the Tablelands, and it’s a lovely little town that’s worth a visit even if you’re not going to do the hike. The drive there is beautiful as well.

There’s a bit of room to park along the road by the trailhead for the Eastern Point Trail. Don’t be put off by the steep stairs at the beginning; once you climb them, the actual hike is easy and mostly fairly level.

Once you make it up, you’ll be walking along bluffs overlooking both the ocean and the town, with incredible views everywhere you turn. Word is there are sometimes sheep grazing up there as well, but, sadly, we didn’t encounter any. There are a few little spurs you can follow or not, but all together you’ll probably be hiking under 2 miles. Very kid-friendly (assuming you don’t let them fall off the cliffs, but the trail is a safe distance away; I’m fairly scared of heights and had no problems).

And have I mentioned that it’s BEAUTIFUL?

I think I mentioned this in my more general Newfoundland post, but I’ll say it again: Newfoundland is super dog-friendly. We very rarely encountered trails that weren’t dog friendly, even in the National Parks. And the trails were even friendly for nervous guys like Fergus, since they were usually uncrowded.