“…Along Newfoundland’s rugged western coast, the “big mournful place” is in fact an area of stunning natural beauty, a fantasy landscape of rough, rocky mountains, stark fjords, deep glacial lakes, coastal bogs, and wave-carved cliffs. Add a dash of mist and it’s easy to picture what life was like here 1000 years ago, when Leif Eriksson and 35 Viking seagoers established North America’s first European colony.”
We saw this family skipping stones on the lake.
“In geologic terms, though, a thousand years may as well be a day – which is especially obvious in the Tablelands area. …Tablelands’ hills are bare, rusty, flattened, and eroded by time….About 570 million years ago, the rocks that form this area were part of earth’s mantle, driven to the surface from under the crust during the continental breakup…”
The difference between the Tablelands and the rest of the park (even just down the road) was striking. Once second you're in green and blue vibrant fjords, mountains, etc. and literally within a couple hundred yards it's dry, yellow, flat. I drove back and forth across the dividing line a couple of times trying to capture the true difference, but couldn't quite do it. It was really amazing.
*Some photo credit and a lot of fun credit goes to Cort!
