Gros Morne

Friday August 5^th

We fit a lot into a day.  This AM we went on a hike with a guide which was advertised as a walk across 15 million years in 1 km.   It is a place on the coast where the upheaval of the tectonic plates is where the Cambrian and the Ordovician layers can be seen.  The layers are so well defined that they are used as the reference standard by the scientists of the world.  The layers are shell and granite which are standing on their edge.  Very hard to walk on but fascinating to see under you feet in a solid mass.  The earliest layer has microscopic fossils, but the more recent layer has fossils you can see in it.  You can walk around in the area of this recent layer and find fossils all around.  This is on the coast.  The guide said headlands are the stronger granite and  coves are the weaker shale.  Very interesting.  Came home, had lunch, and then went on a 4 1/2 km walk to the most beautiful water falls I have ever seen.  The unusual thing is that at least 3 1/2km of the walk was on a boardwalk about 18 inches wide.  It went through a bog.  It reminded me of the much smaller one at Swallow Falls we went to at Swallow Falls in Md.  At first there was a streamlet coming under it about every 6 -10 yards.  Then it was just wet all the time.  Beautiful, interesting flowers, ferns, fallen trees.  They had a bad insect infestation here also which killed many trees.  This they say is natural and would let other trees grow.  Moose were introduced here 100 years ago and have no natural predators, so they have become completely overpopulated.  They love to eat the new young trees that should be repopulating the forests, so they say they are missing 30 years of new forest growth.  They are having a hunt his fall.  Came home fixed supper.  It stays light till 9:30 or so.  It is hard to stay inside when this is often the loveliest, sunniest time of the day.  Today was beautiful sunny day.  We would not resist , so we went on another walk around a pond right here in the camp ground.  Very pretty.

As you can tell, we love Gros Morne- beautiful forested low mountains, closed of fyords, and interesting rocks and blue sea.  No individual services here, but as all Canada parks, they do have showers. Camp sights are set back in the trees.  We have the trailer facing a mountain away from the road, so we feel like we are alone.  No stink of campfires for some reason.  It is fairly full, but it does not seem so.  No rules.  We thought it would be isolated, but there were fishing villages all along the coast.  The little ones they bought out but the bigger ones are still there, so there are stores, laundries, etc. near by.  Going on a cruise on a closed up fjord in AM.  Suppose to be beautiful.  Dad says the national temperature of Canada is 60.  It did warm up nicely today into 70s but still had a chilly wind.  Gets down in mid fifties at night.