Jun 7 Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne

 

The forecast is 47 degrees, over an inch of rain and windy. We have one of the highlights of the trip today, traveling by boat on Western Brook Pond. How could a boat tour on a pond called Western Brook be a highlight. It's a freshwater fjord with almost vertical rock walls 2000 plus feet high. Waterfalls tumble down the sides. It is a top tier attraction and I get to see it in the rain and try to get photos in the rain.

Just a short distance from St Paul, Newfoundland, along the highway known locally as the Viking Trail, is the trailhead for this tour. We park in the trailhead parking lot which is plenty big enough today but looks woefully undersized for the height of the tourist season. After parking, it is a 1.8 mile walk on a gravel road to get to the boat.

We walk in an out of Tuckamore forests which are also known as krummholz forests. They are typically Balsam fir and Black spruce trees which are stunted, twisted and almost laying down on their side from the strong coastal winds. Although most of this area is taiga, dense boreal forest, this area had what looks like tundra, vast areas where deep rooted vegetation like trees can't grow. 

One of those tuckamore trees

Interspersed were wetlands with blooming Marsh marigolds fully in bloom.

 

We are not quite completely soaked by the time we arrive at the boat dock. There are 3 boats here. We board the largest for our tour. This landlocked "pond" as they call it, is a couple of miles from a road. The two smaller boats were dragged across the wetlands on a sled to minimize damage. The large boat was airlifted by helicopter in pieces and reassembled on site.

All the inside seats are taken by the time we board so it is going to be a wet trip. I place myself in the very front of the ship outside. It turns out to be the least windy spot outside. I was able to remain there for about an hour. Finally, when someone asked a question, I found that I had difficulty forming words and realized I needed to warm up. I headed to a more sheltered place, still outside but warmer. There I remained.

The vertical walls were stunning. There was still snow melting and tumbling down as waterfalls. We saw a hanging valley which was likely carved while the pond still was a glacier. We saw a rockslide which occurred July 28 2016 while a tour boat was nearby. The rocks did not cause huge waves but the sound was deafening. 

Fresh water and very old rock

Upper center is a formation called the Tinman.

We turned around at this waterfall to return to base. The waterfall has lots of spray and is called Pissing Mare Falls.

Jun 6 Tableland at Gros Morne

 

The Tablelands are where the Earth's  mantle was pushed up to the surface by the convergence of  tectonic plates. It is here at Gros Morne that the tectonic plates collided half a billion years ago and where a portion of the ocean crust was forced upward. The portion of the ocean floor contained part of the Earth's upper mantle. That has happened in very few other places on Earth with Gros Morne being the best example. Earth's exposed mantle here is mainly peridotite which contains several heavy metals and iron making it toxic to plants. A lecture at the visitor center given by Ranger Chris. She gave a wonderful PowerPoint lecture before we headed to the Tablelands to see the Earth's mantle first hand. 

Chris shows us the topography of Gros Morne

Forget me Nots were blooming today

We had some time prior to heading to the Tablelands, so I hiked in the area of the visitors center to get a few views. We are on the west coast of Newfoundland right where the Gulf of St Lawrence becomes the Strait of St Lawrence. Although, many people here call it the ocean. Glaciers carved inlets, some of which became fjords. After the 2-3 mile thick ice sheet melted and the land rose up when the weight of the ice was no longer compressing it. So, some of these fjords became landlocked creating landlocked fjords of fresh water. We were told that when this happened some saltwater fish were separated from the ocean developing new freshwater species. Right where we were in Bonne Bay, we were told they had their own species of Cod in the salt water inlet. 

I walked to a nearby cemetery where it appears everyone who ever died here was buried. The older section is being overtaken by Alder which is seemingly everywhere.

The Province flower - Pitcher plant

Finally, we are at the Tablelands. Here the peridotite is mostly barren rock. The orange color is due to the iron oxidizing. It looks like the Mars rover would be right at home here.

Through a process called hydrothermal metamorphism peridotite transforms to soapstone as seen here. 

A few plants are able to make a living here. Moss campion is one. We saw several clumps of it.

Alpine chickweed 

Serpentine sandwort

Wait! Did I not write that peridotite is toxic to plants. How did these get there? Above, Chris is explaining that eventually really hardy plants like lichen will begin growing on the rock. Then another hardy plant, moss will grow. In this case Grey wool moss. It looks like dirty wool. Chris is standing next to a rock almost completely covered in Grey wool  moss. It turned green when she poured some water on it, reviving it. Over time, perhaps over a long period it exists by itself until a seed from somewhere is blown onto it or dropped by a critter. The seed gets snagged in the moss and then you begin to have a few hardy alpine plants eking out a living here. It takes a long time for this to happen. The peridotite has been here since the plates collided about 470 to 400 million years ago. And glaciations have occurred here since then, the last ending about 15,000 years ago. So, it has been a while yet it is still almost completely void of plants.

There is a trail which used to be a gravel road here. That trail has many invasive plants growing on its border making it a green ribbon through the barren Tablelands. When the road was built, gravel was put down and vehicles drove it and later we hike it. We inadvertently carry seeds and spores which get deposited along the road. That leads me to think that everywhere we have built paths and roads, we have provided the means to introduce a lot of plants that wouldn't be there otherwise. 

Departing the Tablelands, we head to downtown Bonne Bay to await a water taxi. There are about a dozen commercial buildings here. The largest being a fish/shellfish processing plant. nOh, and there is this cute lighthouse right downtown.

From the water taxi

The blue and white boat is our ride to Norris Point from here. It is about a 30 minute ride across the inlet. From there, we head up the coast to the community of Cow Head where we will spend a couple nights.

Jun 5 Deer Lake and the Insectarium

 

Yesterday, we (Nanci, Will and I) flew from NC to Deer Lake Newfoundland. Deer Lake is located near the west coast of Newfoundland, about an hour south of Gros Morne National Park. Today, we have a free day before our Road Scholar journey begins. This is a very small town by our standards and without a vehicle, we are confined to a small area around the hotel. Will had learned there is an insectarium with a Deer Lake address. We quickly saw where it was on the map and walking on a busy road was not what we wanted to do. After looking at alternatives on Alltrails, I saw a hiking trail that went most of the way there, along the Humber River. So that is what we did, walked through a boreal forest and bogs to get to the Insectarium.

We did see some interesting stuff on the hike, including this Wood Horsetail. The forest was spruce and fir with a healthy number of Paper Birch and Gray Alder. In a bog we saw some Skunk current. Merlin identified a number of warblers we don't hear in NC. 

Before we could even buy a ticket at the Insectarium, we were mesmerized by the stick insects on display in the lobby. Above, is a very camouflaged stick insect. Can you spot it? My arrow points to its head.

A closer look at this insect's head. Look below it to see its legs branch off, looking just like a young tree branch. 

The insectarium receives weekly butterfly and moth larvae from Philippines and Costa Rica. Here in what I will call the butterfly incubator, the larvae feeds and begins the pupation stage, finally hatching after several weeks. Here are several stages before they emerge - upper left of photo.

The Atlas moth is the largest known moth. It may not look big here but it is a large one.

We were encouraged to go through the Butterfly house first as there would be a large school group coming soon. We walked in to the enclosure with many tropical moths and butterflies. A Koi pond and many butterfly feeding plants were throughout. Right away, we were entertained and intrigued by the Morpho Butterfly. Many others were colorful but the Morpho had beautiful blue wings on the topside and a brown paisley design on the underside which was not visible when they landed. We enjoyed this exhibit until an influx of invasives (school kids) chased us out.

The Morpho

Some real gems here.

In the main exhibit area we saw many mounted butterflies, moths, beetles and many other insects, a few tarantulas, a couple salamanders, some honey bees and a collection of other oddities. Postage stamps and currency with insects were there. Jewelry from beetles, commercial products with insects, a serving tray made with butterfly parts and bottled rice wine with scorpions rounded out the exhibit. 

The Sunset moth is considered to be the most beautiful insect. This is a nice specimen.

I think this is a Long eared owl with an owl butterfly.

One last closeup of a stick insect. This one looks like it has leaves attached to it. Nanci was the only one brave enough to hold it.