Hiking – Page 3 – The Destinators

Terra Nova National Park

Terra Nova National Park is situated on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. It encompasses 238 km/150 miles of shoreline, all of it within a north to south span of 45 km/30 miles and within 5 km/3 miles of the coast. It comprises islands, sounds, points, fjords, bogs, headlands, inlets, forests, ponds, fingers (of land), arms (of water), tickles (look it up), and straits. The park’s PR people share our penchant for superlatives… Brochures boast that Terra Nova is Canada’s easternmost National Park (yes, we’ve been to Pacific Rim National Park) and Newfoundland’s oldest, established in 1957 (Gros Morne was established in 1970). As with all National Parks, Terra Nova manages access to the beautiful parklands and its primary mission is conserving and restoring ecological integrity.

If Gros Morne is about the rocks, Terra Nova is about balancing the health of the forest that supports the critters that eat the lichen that grows on the rocks, the rocks down in the valley-o (oops, Newfoundland music…).

The Road to the Isles

Newfoundland and Labrador covers a pretty large area. If the province were a state in the US it would be the 4th largest, after Alaska, California and Texas based on landmass. (Based on population, it would be the 2nd smallest, right in between Vermont and Wyoming…). Similar to Alaska, it’s a big space up north with very few roads. What that means is that people touring Newfoundland in RVs often find themselves moving around in cohorts based on which of the 3 ferries they took and when they arrived, and we just keep running into each other over and over again.

As we chatted with people in our northwest Newfoundland cohort (because that’s where we arrived on July 7), they all mentioned plans to visit Fogo Island and Twillingate. Those 2 places were on our list, as well. As we crossed paths and chatted with travelers in other cohorts, heading in the reverse direction, they all said you’ve got to see Fogo Island and Twillingate. Newfoundland and Labrador Route 340, known as the Road to the Isles, heads north from Gander – and so did we.

Gros Morne National Park

National parks in Canada are established to manage wild and natural spaces, and balance access for visitors to appreciate and enjoy while protecting and conserving their unique ecological offerings. We’ve come to especially appreciate them as beautiful places to learn more about nature and indulge in one of our favorite activities – hiking. Gros Morne checks all the boxes and more. Much more. Its global geological significance is mind blowing.

The Great Northern Peninsula

The ferry dropped us off in St Barbe, about two thirds of the way up Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. It was late in the day and we decided to camp in nearby Flower’s Cove and head north in the morning.

Blanc-Sablon, QC

We are not keen on reservations, as a general rule. Reservations force us to arrive somewhere at a certain day or time – what if we find something interesting along the way there!?! So, even though we didn’t make reservations on the ferry making the crossing from Blanc-Sablon, QC (2 km/1.2 miles from the Labrador border) to St Barbe, Newfoundland, finding that there was no room for another RV on the day we arrived planning to cross was not a cause for distress. To the contrary, yay! We have an extra day to explore this tiny corner of Quebec.

Labrador 510 – Trans-Labrador Highway, part 2

The road to connect the settlements and resources of western and coastal Labrador – the Trans-Labrador Highway – had been in the works since the early 80’s. Dirt roads and walking trails between settlements were widened into gravel roads in sections, then paved as demand and budgets allowed. The last remaining section of gravel was paved in July, 2022 – and the road was complete!

Labrador 500 – Trans-Labrador Highway, part 1

Grand Lake from Sunday Hill, North West River, NL

The history of Newfoundland and Labrador is long and colorful. Here’s the super condensed version…. The earliest known inhabitants were Inuit (hunters of sub-arctic sea mammals, like whales), Innu (caribou hunters) and Mi’kmaq (seafood harvesters in the summer and forest hunters in the winter). The earliest European settlers are thought to have been Vikings, just after 1000 AD. Starting in the early 15oo’s, explorers from France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and England began to visit. Eventually, these folks came to be in conflict with each other and the original inhabitants in their efforts to claim portions of the newly found land in order to control resources. Perhaps the most immediately obvious of these resources was an insane abundance of great fishing. Over the centuries since, additional resources of interest have been identified all over this vast area and have included furs, forests, minerals (iron ore), and hydropower.

Quebec 389

Quebec 389 is described as dangerous by public safety organizations, beautiful by tourism publications, and remote by both. It is unquestionably remote, winding its way through the boreal forest 547 km/340 miles from Baie Comeau on the St Lawrence River, past a series of ‘Manic’ dams owned by Hydro-Quebec (Manic-1 through Manic-5, all named after Lake Manicoualan which they hold back) and multiple open pit mines on the way to Fermont (French for Iron Mountain). There are 2 tiny settlements and 3 fuel stations along the way. There’s cell coverage at the fuel stations. For safety, there are 10 good, old-fashioned telephone booths spread out along the road (more than remain in the entire state of Vermont) for anyone who’s stranded. It’s the only road north from the Côte Nord/North Coast of Quebec and, once connected to the Trans-Labrador Highway, allowed for overland passage to the coast of Labrador. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Twilight over the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains

Asked which is the most visited National Park in the country, most people would think it must be Yellowstone or Yosemite or some of the other large parks in the west. Nope! Great Smoky Mountains National Park takes the top spot. Its location – within a day’s drive of half the US population – and its incredible beauty attracted 14 million people in 2021. (Zion with 5 million and Yellowstone with 4.9 rounded out the top 3.)

GSMNP is a wide area in the Appalachian Mountains that spans the North Carolina and Tennessee border with a seemingly endless series of forested mountain ridges. The natural vegetation in the area releases organic compounds with a bluish tint that mix with the natural morning fog to create a blue-tinged, smoky appearance – hence the name. The park is well known for its views and waterfalls, its elk herd, and its hiking. Hiking!

New River Gorge National Park

When we first decided to travel about in an RV back in 2015, the first thing we did was create a master electronic map where we’d put e-push pins everywhere we wanted to visit. It’s likely no surprise that among the first pins to make it to the map were the National Parks in the US and Canada. About a year ago, I read a NY Times article about the New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. Hmmm… this isn’t on our map. How’d that happen? It turns out that although the New River has been a protected river (no dams/development) since 1978, it was re-designated as a National Park in 2020. We added a push pin.