Travel dates: June 2023
A trip to Newfoundland usually involves a lot traversing the perimeter, clinging to the coast and rarely letting the ocean out of your sight for very long. It’s an island, after all.
I won’t pretend that I think this approach to touring is wrongheaded; Newfoundland’s coast is stunningly beautiful, and you won’t run out of things to see there. But we did have one stop farther inland–in Grand Falls Windsor–and we found that it had its owns charms and was very much worth seeing.
Our original plan was to drive all the way from Gros Morne to the Fogo Island ferry and take the ferry over the same day. But we ended up deciding this was too ambitious and booked a one night stay at Sanger Memorial RV Park in Grand Falls-Windsor.
Grand Falls-Windsor is one of the bigger cities in Newfoundland, which means you’ll find big grocery stores, a Wal-mart, et. al. –i.e. it’s a good place to stock up if you’re heading to more remote areas of the island.
The RV Park is operated by the Environment Resources Management Association and is in a great spot right on the river. There are 47 full hookup sites for $38CAD. Spacious sites with gravel pads, many of them pull-throughs. Some of them back up to the river and look especially nice:
We took a not great route to the campground; you could find yourself on some not great for towing roads through town if you’re not careful. In retrospect, we recommend taking Exit 20 off the TCH, which will put you off on Scott Ave and take you right to the campground (double check my directions on a current map, though!) This means driving past town before exiting if you’re coming from the west like we were, but it keeps you off the narrow roads in town.
The park has a laundry room, bathhouse with showers (the bathhouse was nice, except the showers were that annoying sort where you have to push a button every few seconds to keep the water going. But, hey, free showers at least!), and some nice trails around the property and down to the park by the river. And many wildflowers if you’re there in June:
We were just in Grand Falls-Windsor for one night, but we did have time both to stock up on groceries and to check out the Salmonid Interpretation Centre, run by the same people as the RV park. We really enjoyed this stop; there’s a fascinating story here about how they built a networks of salmon ladders that vastly increased the salmon population in the Exploits River. And we got to watch salmon jumping up one of the ladders, a surprisingly riveting experience. I tried to get a salmon in this picture, but they were too quick for me!
We learned that, while Pacific salmon die after spawning, Atlantic salmon can return to the ocean and then spawn again the next year. So you ever have a chance to choose between being an Atlantic and a Pacific salmon, now you know!
There’s an exhibit space where you can watch a film about the salmon ladder project and then go downstairs to see wild salmon through a viewing window:
Then you go outside and see the river and ladders themselves and cheer on the salmon who work so hard to jump up them.
The guy working in the store/ticket booth here was super chatty and friendly and gave us a recommendation for a restaurant outside Twillingate…which we took and which I’ll get to in a few more posts!
2023 Newfoundland Trip Posts
Visiting Newfoundland: Overview and General Thoughts
Grand Codroy RV Park and Codroy Valley
Water’s Edge RV Park in Gros Morne
Gros Morne National Park: South
Port Au Choix and the Great Northern Peninsula
Gros Morne National Park: North
Sanger Memorial RV Park/Grand Falls-Windsor
Fogo Island/Brimstone Head RV Park
Twillingate and Dildo Run Provincial Park
Pippy Park, St. John’s Campground Review
Four Days on the Bonavista Peninsula
Leave a Reply