The Inland Fjords
Our one day in Grose Morne was very full of hikes and beautiful landscapes. The first thing we did was a hike through West Brooke Pond to some inland fjords that used to be a part of the ocean but were disconnected some thousands of years ago. It was three klicks to the water and then you could take a boat tour of the lake and through the fjords. The boat left at 12:30pm and we decided to take it, so we had to wait a little until it took off. My grandparent’s neighbours who we had seen the night before, Anne and Bob, were also there so we walked in with them. While we were waiting I had some seafood chowder and the parent taught us childs 120’s finally. I kind of got the hang of it before we were off. It was extraordinarily
windy on the water and Mum and I were too stubborn to go inside the cabin for the first little bit. When we finally did, it was much warmer and I learned some interesting facts. Apparently, the fjords are the opposite of those you might see in Norway. These have 2000ft high cliffs and 600-700ft deep water. In Norway, the water in 2000ft deep and the cliffs are only 600-700ft. That’s some deep water. I also learned that the water has very few ions in it, so it creates very little electricity and it doesn’t have very much oxygen in it either, so those two factors paired with the depth equal very little animal life in the lake. The cliffs surrounding it are a northern branch of the ancient Appalachians and the fjord, if is was not filled with water, would be a valley. Apparently, if there was any seismic activity in the area at all, great portions of the unstable cliff walls
would break off, causing massive waves in the lake. That was very reassuring. The guides pointed out some faces in the cliff. One, called the Old Man On The Mountain, was very realistic and almost Gutson Borglum style. In Canada, we don’t have to actually work for carvings in our mountains. There were also quite a few waterfalls pouring over the side, including one near the opposite tip of the fjord called Pissing Mare and a few green valleys you could see, one called Hanging Valley because it just
kind of ends at the fjord and drops off and another that caribou use as a migratory path. It’s broken in two by the water and the caribou will actually swim from one bank to the next. It’s not very wide, but the water’s almost freezing to it’s pretty impressive. Once the boat got between the cliffs, the wind lessened a bunch, so Mum and I decided to join Dad up at the very front of the boat until it turned around and we were going straight into the wind. When we turned around, four hardcore hiker bros literally jumped off the boat to do some back country camping for four days. They had to get special passes from the National Park and everything. It was pretty intense. The hour ride back to the
shore was kind of boring since we were passing all the same sights and I got pretty sleepy since I was all warm in the cabin and the crew was playing music over the speakers. Back at the docks, Mum ordered some chowder and Dad ordered a burger before starting the trek back to the car through the bog. We wanted to do another hike along the coast, so we set out for that. We stopped at the wreckage of the SS Ethie along the way, a ship that ran aground in 1919 during a storm. Luckily, nobody died, not even the baby sent ashore in a mailbag, and the hull and little bit have been there rusting and rotting ever since. That was pretty
cool to see, though probably not all that great for the environment to leave rusting metal in the ocean like that. Strange. Anyways, we tried to find the Coastal Hike and pulled off at Green Point because we thought that was the place. It turned out not to be, but we found some red chairs to get a picture in and we walked down the cliff to the water’s edge that’s lined with shale. The geography was really neat. We didn’t get our second hike in but I found cool shells and hermit crabs so it was all okay. Plus we got to watch the tide come in a bit, right up close, which made Dad a little nervous since we could have ended up trapped on a high shale shelf, but we got out on time. Dad wanted to go check out Norris Point, just to see what it was all about and we ended up getting some drinks and a cold plate to share since we were all a little hungry. Then grabbed some real dinner back in Rocky Point at the SunSet Restaurant. The service was about the same as the night before but we had brought cards this time so it was all good. Peace out m8s.
