Lobster Cove head Lighthouse
This lighthouse, located on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard; it was automated in 1975. It was manned by the Young family for seventy-five years. The lighthouse keeper's house is now a museum, surprisingly informative. The docent (see above) is a paid employee of the Canadian Government; he was more than helpful, explaining the history and current operations of the lighthouse.
Further north at Cow Head we visited the abandoned lighthouse located on Cow Head Point. The trail to the lighthouse is well maintained, although strenuous.The lighthouse has been left to weather naturally and trees have grown up around it thereby blocking its view from most of the Gulf. The door was left open and one can climb up a ten-foot ladder to enter the windowed top portion of it. Views of the Gulf and the National Park from several points on the trail are magnificent.
Cow Head Point Lighthouse
We saw several roadside gardens planted along the highway leading to Cow Head. There were no houses located near these gardens. It was, however, obvious that these gardens were not to be disturbed! We also observed a few root cellars along this route. The cellars were up to 10 feet high and sod covered.
Roadside Garden near Cow Head
We stopped to explore a fish camp in Sally's Cove located 20 kilometers north of our camp ground in Rocky Harbor. Fishing boats, lobster nets, bouys, and other fishing supplies were piled around the camp and stored in old buildings. One building housed many cans of gasoline and several outboard motors. The boats were very stark and encrusted with fish scales. The entire camp was quite smelly. We failed to notice a sign warning that a bear was in the vicinity and that we should take care until we were leaving the camp. There are many camps like this one located in the small fishing villages along this side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Fortunately, most of them are much better maintained. [As an aside, we notice that most of the houses and buildings in Newfoundland are well kept and brightly painted. In addition, there is no trash or junk evident in the yards. This makes for a very beautiful Province].
Fish Camp at Sally's Cove
We hiked a portion of the Coastal Trail located at the Green Point Campground. This trail follows an old mail road along the beach. There is a 50-foot wide tuckamore forest between this trail and the Gulf. Tuckamore is the Newfoundland term for the dwarfed and twisted white spruce and balsam fir trees that make up a natural barrier between the sand and trail. It is said that the tuckamore vegetation "shreds clothing, grapples with legs, and rips the laces out of boots.' It is also stated that because of its "tenacity, ubiquity, and sculptured aesthetics, it has led to its adoption as the symbol for the Gros Morne National Park."
Tuckamore on the Coastal Trail
Our final stop for the day was a Green Point where fossils can be found in a notch between Cambrian and Ordovician sediments. The sediment layers have been interlayered with sandstone and limestone conglomerate and have been tilted about 115 degrees. Each one-meter step along the base of the cliff passes about 60,000 years of sediment accumulation. The rocks to the south of the cliff were accumulated during the Cambrian Period and to the north they were accumulate during the Ordovician Period. The record here is so complete and well preserved that the International Union of Geological Sciences is considering Green Point as an international standard for defining the boundary between the Cambrian and Ordovician Periods.
Green Point Cliffs
Green Point Fossil
It was high tide today during our visit so we could not get close to the areas of most interest. Patrice and I plan to visit the site tomorrow for a more in-depth view of the rock formations and fossils and I will write a more detailed site description after our visit. By the way, the road down to the cliffs is quite steep and the stop sign in this photo says it all.
Road to Green Point
After today's visit to Green Point it was time to relax, take in the view, and listen to the waves. Life of an RVer can be hard.
Relaxing at Green Point
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