Day 9 – Gros Morne National Park

After a fairly serious thunderstorm last night, we woke to a clear blue sky. Unfortunately, it only lasted the morning. Clouds moved in this afternoon and it has been a largely continuous rain this evening. The lighting in the pictures is not the best, but I did what I could.

The Tablelands are a very odd sight. They look like reddish brown mountains made entirely of loose rock with almost nothing growing on them. They’re actually weathered rock from the middle layer of the Earth’s crust. The mantel was pushed up and exposed when continents collided almost half a billion years ago. Exposed mantel is a very rare occurrence. Very few plants will grow because the soil is toxic.

Western Brook Pond is a fjord which are typically found only in Norway and Iceland. The 2,000 foot walls were formed by glaciers cutting a deep gorge in the surrounding plateau. After the glaciers receded, the valley was cut off from the sea and fed by fresh water streams. It is a very fragile ecosystem as the water is very nutrient poor due to being surrounded by rock instead of soil, and the narrow steep walls shade it so the temperature stays cold. Also, it takes about 15 years for the water currently in the pond to be drained and replaced by the streams supplying and draining it. I will try to get better pictures before we leave the area. Or just try googling Western Brook Pond….it’s stunning.

I will post many of these pictures, plus a few others, on the gallery page as I believe the photos in the posts are downgraded in order to load quicker. It may be at the end of the trip before I have a chance to upload them though.