Newfoundland & Labrador

From the beautiful mountain ranges, to the Trans Labrador Highway, Newfoundland and Labrador were full of beautiful sights to see and pretty amazing things to do!

We caught the North Atlantic Ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. The crossing time for the ferry seemed like a never ending 6 hours! The longest ferry ride I have ever been on, and much longer than I would have liked. But the ride it self was quote smooth and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. The ferry company highly recommends getting a window seat if you can, many whales have been seen from the ferry, especially during the summer months. Unfortunately we were crossing too early on in the year to be seeing anything. We gave ourselves about a good week to spend in Newfoundland, then an addition couple of days to conquer the Trans Labrador Highway. Although it may seem like long enough to see the entire Island, it absolutely was not! So, we focused on the West Coast of Newfoundland, to ensure we got to experience everything we wanted too on that coast. So our first stop was J.T Cheeseman Provincial Park. The park was only 10 minutes from the Ferry Port, and so beautiful! Although we only spent one night here, we got to get a good grasp of what the park had to offer. The campsites were shady with lots of privacy. We were they only ones camping at the time. Probably because the week prior to our arrival it snowed. Even while we were camping we wore our winter jackets for the majority of the time, the weather was COLD. Anyways, the park had a beautiful beach, which was home to the endangered piping plover, and two super cute sets of waterfalls.

Gros Morne National Park

Newfoundland's National Park, Gros Morne, has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. The beauty of this park, is not one which can be depicted properly in a photograph however, it will give you a small glimpse as how amazing this place is. The Viking Trail (yes it is a road) will lead you directly to the National park. There are tons of Moose warning signs posted along your way into the park, and continuing all throughout the park itself. Upon entering the park, there is a tally which shows the number of moose and car collisions from this year, versus the amount of last year. In total for 2017 there were 8 moose-car collisions. As of June 2018, the tally had already reached 8 accidents.

Driving around the park in the evening, we had realized the importance of the moose warning signs. On more than one occasion, we needed to bring the truck to a complete stop for a moose crossing. Although it was exciting at first, the number of close calls, quickly made me wish I wasn't in Moose country anymore.

The Tablelands

Our first stop in the National park was called the Tablelands. A nice 3km hike along mountain ranges and valleys, that offer the opportunity for you to walk on the earths mantle. So of course we did. During the hike you also get to hike alongside a beautiful set of rapids and waterfalls. As far as Scenery goes, this is a spectacular hike. This hike also has avalanche warnings. In fact, an avalanche occurs in this exact spot at least one time each year. While we were walking along, we had seen an area where the snow had collapsed in, up on the mountain side.

Green Gardens

The famous Green Gardens hike was by far my favorite experience in Newfoundland. This was a 10km hike, up and back down a mountain, which takes you through the boreal forest to a volcanic sea coastline of cliffs overlooking the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. This hike was just breathtaking! I definitely recommend if your going to make time for any hike, make it this one! When we reached the coastline, there is a meadow, with sheep roaming around, some just sitting right on the trail. It was funny to experience. For the most part they just walk away if you get to close to them. The views are just amazing!! Climbing up this mountain, I honestly didn't think i was going to survive LOL. It was a tedious climb, that never seemed to end. However, our drive back to camp was full of excitement! We spotted two baby moose on the side of the road, and had two bald eagles soaring above our vehicle. There is no shortage of wildlife here.

Baker's Brook Falls Hike

Another one of our favorite hike's in the national park was Baker's Brook Falls. This is a much simpler hike in comparison to Green Gardens. This hike, or more so walk, follows along an interpretative boardwalk through a forest of old decaying trees. Along the hike we learned that many of the trees are dyeing from caterpillars. Anyway, this hike is about 8 km. Although the sites of the hike were beautiful, what made this hike so exciting and completely worthwhile was our encounter with a Moose!! As we were walking along the boardwalk, about 30ft in front of us a moose crossed and stopped right in the center of the trail! He was so big and magical, and seemed so curious by us. He stared at us for a good 10 minutes before moving off into the woods. Even after he moved off the trail he kept turning back to look at us. It was the coolest thing. We were sure to keep our distance though, wouldn't want to be charged by a Moose, that's for sure!

Arches National Park

Our final day in Newfoundland was spent exploring the Sea Arches in Arches National Park. The sea stakes and arches were beautiful stone formations created by the shift in water levels and waves. Once we had finished exploring we continued driving down the viking trail, and taking in the amazing scenery all around us. To one side of us was mountains, and to the other side of us was ocean. It was pretty spectacular to be able to look out one window to one view and the other window to a very different view. Newfoundland was worth it on its own just for that drive! Not to mention all the wildlife that surrounds the area! In total by the time we loaded onto the ferry to Labrador we had seen 8 moose!

Trans Labrador Highway

From Newfoundland, we grabbed the Apollo Ferry to Labrador. The ferry ride was pretty intense! The ferry itself, drove through thick pieces of Icebergs ! I guess that's one way to see an iceberg, just truck right through it! The feeling of the ferry breaking through the ice, was intense. The entire boat shook, but I guess there built for things like that! Anyways, the highlight of Labrador, was driving through on the Trans Labrador Highway. We had NO idea was we were getting ourselves into!

Little did we know, the Trans Labrador Highway is only partially paved, 500km of it is completely dirt! The gaps between gas stations are far and few between. There are signs warning you not to go any further unless you have a full tank of gas. We had to go 400km between gas stations at one point, and this was with stopping at every station! I also must mention, the wildlife in Labrador is amazing! We had a black bear cross the road right in front of and sit along the side of the road, as if posing for photos. It was incredible! We also had a similar experience occur with a silver tail fox! He actually posed for our camera! No doubt!

We had just pulled over at a rest stop to make a switch between who was driving, when this fox comes running across the road and sits just a few feet right in front of us. He kept looking back at us, and we were able to capture an amazing shot! We also had about 4 moose run out in front of us, bring our count up to 12 moose! The drive in Labrador again was quite amazing.

We followed along the coast for the majority of our drive up until we reached the dirt highway road. It was pretty amazing looking out into the ocean, and seeing all the icebergs and big ice pieces floating in the water. There was still snow here too! About a good foot of it! Needless to say we were still wearing our winter jackets in June! Also, just to put in perceptive how intense this drive was, there were next to no cars passing by. We were lucking if we saw one car within an hour of driving. But on the ferry ride over to Labrador, we were looking through the gift shop, and the lady running the store had given us a "I survived the trans Labrador highway" sticker, free of charge. In fact she laughed when we told her we were going to drive the highway back to Quebec! I am super glad we braved the drive, because it stands out in my mind as one of my favorite experiences on the trip so far! Definitely made for some amazing wildlife viewings, and great stories to tell!

Thanks for following along our journey! We hope you enjoy our reads as much as we enjoy writing them! Stay posted for the next stop!

Stay wild,

Jesse & Jessica.