I woke up at the Humber River Trailhead in Deer Lake and saw a few other cars there. I didn’t want to waste any time getting to Gros Morne, so I quickly got some groceries, filled up the tank, and then left.

Gros Morne is the second largest national park in Atlantic Canada that is also designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it provides a rare example of continental drift, where you can see deep ocean crust and the earth’s mantle. It’s divided into a 3 main sections- North, Central, and Southeast. Under recommendation of the locals, I decided to split my visit into three days so that I could spend each day properly exploring each section (let’s see if I follow through on this haha).

I decided to start with the Southeast section of the park, because it has the Tablelands, which was some thing I really wanted to see because it is one of the few places in the world where you can stand on the Earth’s mantle. In April, however, there is still snow on the hiking trails, and without proper snowshoes or touring gear you can’t get too far on some of the trails. It was cool standing on the Earth’s mantle, getting everything to myself, which was really peaceful and meditative. I even saw a couple moose walk by in the distance.

A wave of fatigue hit me, so I got back in the car and drove to the nearest town, Woody Point, to park somewhere and take a nap. I woke up right after it got dark and decided to spend the time catching up on some work and plan out my next few days since I had cell service again. That night, I drove to the Green Gardens Trailhead to sleep, and spent a good chunk of the night admiring the bright stars in the completely dark sky.