Date: Saturday, August 15, 2015
Weather: 26 degrees Celsius, overcast to rainy
Distance: ~ 9 kms
Our first hike to test our legs!
We drove the hour around Bonne Bay into Woody Point to watch a short film about the history and culture of Gros Morne National Park at the Discovery Centre. Then we headed over to the trailhead for our Green Gardens hike – our warm-up before we tackled Gros Morne Mountain later in the week.
The trail itself is stunning. Geologicial features include peridotite boulders, the oceanic crust, pillow lava, and sea stacks. Flora includes everything from boreal forest to alpine meadows. We crossed over babbling brooks, steered clear of sheep dung, and oohed and ahhed over rushing waterfalls. The trail was busy but not backed up.
The hike for me was very much mentally like hiking the Grand Canyon. It feels easy going down (thank you, gravity!) but the real work comes on the way back up. It was here I realized how fabulous a group of women we had for this adventure. We were encouraging one another, stopping for breaks as needed, and celebrating with dark chocolate when we reached the top.
We spent the evening in Trout River, enjoying a fantastic dinner before making the hour drive back to our cabins in Rocky Harbour.
For more from this trip report, click here.
Kate Monahan Outdoors 