Heading Back South on the Viking Trail: The Spectacular Western Brook Pond

I have been lucky enough to have seen some of the world's most amazing sites - albeit only those in North America and Europe.  Some of my favourites have been the calanques on the south coast of France between Bandol and Cassis; the Grand Canyon in Arizona; the Canadian Rockies, the Grand Canyon du Verdun in Provence, France; the Swiss Alps, and Santorini's Caldera.  The scenery at Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne Park in western Newfoundland ranks right up there with all of them.  Before leaving for Newfoundland, I had watched a number of YouTube videos about this province and had learned about this place and the wonderful scenery there.  So, needless to say on Wednesday, I was excited at the prospect of being able to experience it.  The weather the previous day had been horrible so the tours that day had been cancelled.  We were very happy to read on the notification board when we arrived in the parking lot that our tour was a go.  The lot is located about 25 minutes north of Rocky Harbour right beside the highway.  The only way to see Western Brook Pond is by boat and you have to walk about 3 km along a fairly easy gravel and boardwalk trail along coastal bogs to get to the boat dock.  The tour takes 2 hours.  

From Wikipedia:  Western Brook Pond is in the Long Range Mountains, the most northern section of the Appalachian Mountains.  It is surrounded by steep rock walls 600 m (2,000 ft.) high, having been carved from the surrounding plateau by glaciers.  After the glaciers melted, the land rebounded and the fjord was cut off from the sea.  Salty water was eventually flushed from the fjord leaving it fresh.  The catchment area is composed of igneous rock with relatively thin soil, so the waters feeding Western Brook Pond are low in nutrients and the lake is classified as ultraoligotrophic.  It is fed by Stag Brook at the extreme eastern end of the lake and by numerous waterfalls cascading from the plateau above. One of these, Pissing Mare Falls at 350 m (1,150 ft.), is one of the highest in eastern North America.

The lake is accessible by a moderate-easy 3 km (1.9 mi) hiking trail over coastal bogs and low limestone ridges.  Two tour boats, one with a capacity of 70 passengers and the other 90 passengers, cruise the lake from June to mid-October.  The lake waters are pristine, having had very little impact from human activities and the tour boat operators have had to undergo special certification to ensure that their operations would have minimal impact on the environment.  In the early part of the 20th century, a part of the surrounding cliff broke off and fell into the lake, causing a 30 m (98 ft.) tsunami.

We started boating down what looks like a fjord but isn’t because it is fresh water not salt.  It is 575 feet deep.  The pond is 16.5 km. long and 700 m tall.  That being said, our guide reiterated the Wikipedia info that it is known that the pond was part of the ocean because whale bones, sea shells and other proof it was saltwater have been found – and near the top of the cliffs, not at the bottom.  This all would have happened hundreds of thousands of years ago.  The guide also explained a lot of the rock formations and other geological aspects of the cliff faces.  There were waterfalls, areas of rock slides, an inverted valley (didn’t quite understand that one), and gullies.  Two of the most famous waterfalls are Western Brook Falls (1900 feet) and the infamous – at least in name – Pissing Mare Falls.  The guide almost apologized for the latter's name and then told us a few days before there had been a boy, around 5, on the tour.  When he heard the name of the falls, he kept going around asking people if they knew the name of the falls and the giggling when he kept saying "pissing, they're called pissing", much to the chagrin and embarrassment of his father. 

The guide told us this lake is called a “pond” because when many of these lakes in Newfoundland were named, Newfoundland was a still territory of the British Commonwealth and the Brits tended to called bodies of water, regardless of their size, ponds.  Not sure I’m buying that explanation but that is what the guide said.  The water in this pond is quite still.  There is only one small brook (Western Brook) that empties the pond into the sea.  It would take 15 years to drain the pond whereas most ponds or lakes drain their water in just a few days or weeks.  Also, the water here is unique in that it has virtually no minerals - ultraoligotrophic.  This was discovered when equipment was installed in the dock that relied on sensing minerals in the water to work.  When it didn’t, they thought the equipment was faulty until they found out there was nothing in the water that the sensors could pick up.

When we first left the dock, we saw a sheltered harbour on the northwest side which has a beach.  Further along the pond, we saw the area where the landslide occurred.  In one place on a cliff, there is a limestone relief that is called “The Tinman” because of its resemblance to the character in the Wizard of Oz.  Also, there is a part of the shoreline where the caribou congregate to cross the pond, climb the opposite hillside to the plateau there where they mate and have their offspring.  It is estimated there are about 400 caribou in the area.  At some point, about 1900 moose were introduced to Newfoundland from New Brunswick and today it is estimated there are about 100,000.  They have wracked destruction on some of the trees, particularly birch in the park, so much so, that it is now allowed, within restrictions, to hunt them – not sure if it is only park rangers who can do that or not.  

The area where the landslide occurred

Western Brook Pond Falls

Pissing Mare Falls

At the far end of the lake, the boat dropped off 8 hikers who were going to hike from there to Gros Morne (the mountain).  There is no trail, per se, and they would have to rely on compasses and landmarks to navigate their way to the end of the trail.  It is a 35 km hike and it will take about 3-5 days to do it – although one person did it in 8 ½ hours but that has never been replicated.  They needed a special permit from the National Park to do this hike – not everyone is permitted to do it.  As it has rained pretty continuously after they were dropped, I sure don't envy them!

As we left the end of the pond and return, everyone was given an opportunity to have their photo taken with the iconic background that is used so often in tourist ads for NL.  We initially thought we'd give it a miss but then thought, why not.  We won't be back here.  

On the return, as we got closer to the end of the pond, one of the guides entertained us playing his guitar and singing a good selection of Newfoundland songs.  The crew got some of the passengers to join in by playing the spoons.  My sister participated and enjoyed it so much that as soon as we got back to Rocky Harbour, we went to the Treasure Box (a quaint little café with a good breakfast and cute gift shop) to buy some!

As I said at the start of this blog, the scenery along Western Brook Pond is breathtaking.  It would have been lovely if the weather had been better but the experience was still very spectacular.  Furthermore, we were really lucky as the tours the previous day had been cancelled and we later heard the tours for the next two days had been as well because of the forecast heavy rains – remnants of hurricane, Irma.  Whew! 

[NOTE:  I have some better photos and a video that I'll add to this blog whenever we can get higher speed WiFi to download them from the "cloud".]