I woke up, saw the sun streaming through my windows, checked the time (it was 11am), and realized that I needed to start the Green Gardens hike if I wanted to do anything productive that day. I guess the exhaustion was starting to get to me.
The Green Gardens hike didn’t seem difficult; it was only slightly over 9 km with an elevation gain of 300 m. The hike begin with a small incline, then turned into a decline all the way until the coast. The sky was clear that day, which made the views extra nice.
There was quite a bit of deep slushy snow in the higher elevation sections of the trail which I fell into numerous times, and it gave me an extra good workout. After a certain point, the snow disappeared, but was replaced instead with poop everywhere. There were also quite a bit of moose tracks along the trail, so I assumed it was their poop. I had never seen so much poop in my life on a trail and had to jump over it at several points.
Eventually, I got to the coast and was greeted with stunning views of the gulf of Saint Lawrence. At the end of the trail there was a picnic area, a camping area, and an outhouse, which looked blown in. The coast was absolutely stunning, and I stood there for a decent amount of time just appreciating the beauty and taking in the tranquility, which felt a bit meditative.
After I walked down to the beach afterwards just to explore a bit more. They were supposedly caves on the other side of this pile of big rocks, so I climbed the rocks to attempt to see it, but the path looked unstable and I climbed back down. There was another viewpoint a 10-min walk away through the forest called Steve’s Cove which was equally breathtaking. If I came at another time, I could’ve also seen sheep grazing on the grass.
After walking back to the car, I left the south side of Gros Morne to go to Gros Morne Central. It was an hour’s drive, and when I got there, I headed straight to Lobster’s Cove. There was a nice lighthouse there which I walked around, but since the lighthouse itself was closed, I left fairly quickly. I headed into the nearby town of Rocky Harbour to get some food as well, since I was starving, and ended up eating Vienna Sausages and a bag of Cheetos for dinner.
What I really wanted to do was go to The Arches Provincial Park for sunset (under local recommendation), and it wasn’t too far from Rocky Harbour (just under an hour north). There was a bit of time before that, so I went to the north part of Gros Morne and hiked a bit of the Coastal Trail as well as Western Brook Pond. The views from both those places were stunning and I was speechless. I would’ve loved to bike around the pond if I had my bike!
The Arches Provincial Park was just off the Viking Trail, a scenic highway that went along the west coast of Newfoundland. The views were stunning and I could’t believe it, and the sun setting only made things better. There were a few other cars parked there when I arrived (all to watch the sunset no doubt). I got out of my car to walk down to the Arches, and they were magnificent. I walked over closer to the water and found some sort of animal bone there too! It was the perfect end to an already great day.
After it got dark and cold outside, I went back into the car to warm up, and fell asleep pretty quickly because I was so tired.
