News and Views

We spent the past two nights in Gros Morne National Park, though in retrospect we should have set aside an extra day or two. It’s quite spectacular, comparable I think to Yosemite.

There are two main features. In the south where we stayed there’s an area where the earth’s mantle has pushed up through the crust, creating a barren brown rocky mountain called the Tablelands. The chemical composition of the mantle is not conducive to plant growth, so there are only a few small adapted plants growing through the brown rocks. As you drive into the valley the contrast between the brown mountain on one side, and the lush green on the other is striking. Unfortunately it was too foggy for me to get a good picture of both sides. I’ll try again on my way out and if successful I will post it here.

We went on a ranger-guided walk into the Tablelands and were told that the rocks here are around 500 million years old, much older than most rocks on the surface of the earth. Geologists come from all over the world to study the rocks here.

The other striking feature of Gros Morne is the fjords, or sounds. Again, it was too foggy to get a good picture, and we didn’t have time to get closer. With an extra day we could have taken a boat ride deep into the fjord that you can see in the distance, covered here by fog. Of course, even in a boat the fog would have been a real damper on the views.

Today we leave Gros Morne and drive down to take the Ferry to Nova Scotia. Our ferry leaves at 11:45 this evening and arrives in Nova Scotia around 8:00am. We got a room with a couple of beds and hope to get some sleep.

We’re also hoping that tropical storm Henri waits until we are safe on land before arriving.