Gros Morne National Park

Following our day of fishing, it was on to Gros Morne National Park. "Gros Morne" stands for "Big Rock" and unlike US National Parks, the ones in Canada have two distinct differences.  First, there are towns, campgrounds and other commercial entities within the park's boundaries.  Second, there are absolutely NO facilities whatsoever into the park.  There is a main highway cutting through the center of the park with little parking lots off to the side here and there where hiking trails are located.  That's it, nothing else.  There was a boat trip through an amazing Fjord.  However, if you wanted to do it, you had to park and hike almost 2 miles to the site of the boat dock.  Here's some photo's of the park's more distinct features.

This is one of the towns within the park.  Norris Point.  It was large enough for me to find a store that sold shoes.  That store was not much bigger than a very small grocery store back home, but there was one kind of shoe, one kind of sneaker and several kinds of rubber boots.  So, I bought a pair for $35CAN since I had only brought sneakers.

We stayed at a nice campground just outside Norris Park.  Aside from an almost disastrous adventure getting there, it was a nice visit.  Imagine arriving into this desolation late in the evening when all is pitch black.  You miss your turn for the campground and think, "OK, I'll turn around somewhere".  After a couple miles, you see a picnic sign and think to yourself "yes, a picnic area which must have a parking lot".  You turn down this road with a 40' motorhome towing a Jeep and immediately find out that it's a sand/gravel road.  "That's OK, keep going and you can just follow the road around and it will loop back out".  Within minutes, you realize that this road has no turn around and ends with the water just 20' to your right and sand dunes and a deserted fishing village to your left.  "OK, let's turn around in front of one of the houses".  These driveways aren't exactly paved OR long as I don't think they expect this type of vehicle.  It's now about 11:30PM and Beth is panicking about being stuck.  Of course, "I can do this, don't worry" as I unhitch the Jeep.  Fortunately, we made it out OK and found our campground.  

There were so many things in the park, here's just a few highlights from our days of exploring the area.

One of the days, the boys and I explored the rocky coastline by following a coastal trail.

Something else you need to consider when traveling in Gros Morne, MOOSE!  There are plenty of warning signs like these all around.

And, if you travel a dusk, that is when you are most likely to have a "moose/vehicle" incident.  There is even signs at the entrance to the park giving the up to date statistics on these encounters.  I believe the number was in the 40's or so.

One of the days, we visited the even larger town of Rocky Harbor.  We at lunch along the shoreline and purchased fresh seafood from one of the piers.  Lobster season had just ended so most of the boats were all stored away for the season.  Now, all that's being "fished" is Snowcrab.

Here's a couple pics of Rocky Harbor

We also found another "Fun Park".  And, similiar to the last one, it was also pretty run down.  But, it had GO KARTS and that's what the boys wanted to do.  So, we played a little miniature golf, rode the go karts, the boys did bumper boats and Ethan rode the train.