Week 660 · September 2026 · Gros Morne, Newfoundland
We camped at Green Point, about halfway between Rocky Harbour and Western Brook Pond — with Rocky Harbour being the largest town in the park offering restaurants and boat rides on Bonne Bay, and Western Brook Pond being the most scenic fjord.
We got our campsite at 7am the first day available back in February, as recommended by the Newfoundland tourist representative we met in DC at a travel show — right on the ocean. You can see in the picture that we didn't connect the tent to the car and used the car as storage — much better approach. The stairs led down to the rocky beach; it was large rocks and really hard to walk — but nice to have the waves crashing as background noise.
Two very different camping experiences within the same park. Trout River put us close to the Tablelands and the fjord pond, buried in trees with a world-class view just out of reach — and a high-tech car that fought us every night. Green Point fixed all of that: ocean-side, tent separate from the car, waves as white noise, and a short walk down to the rocky beach. The February booking tip from the Newfoundland tourism rep at a DC travel show turned out to be exactly right. The trade-off is location — Green Point is closer to Rocky Harbour and the Bonne Bay cruise, but a longer drive to the Tablelands and the southern trails. If you have time for both campgrounds, do both.
Being closer to the main town, we booked a sunset cruise on Bonne Bay — perfect evening and the highlight was the moonrise as well as meeting some other visitors — all from Canada. This was right during the peak of the trade war; of course being Canadians they were very nice as we were apologetic about the whole thing. We kept on the lookout for whales and moose — but only saw a couple of eagles.
Western Brook Pond is located in the northern portion of the park and unlike Bonne Bay — is not on the ocean and is fresh water. When the glaciers melted 12,000 years ago, a land bridge of a couple of miles was left behind. The captain had to remind a couple of people not to be looking for whales — it's a freshwater pond. The pictures don't convey the scale — the sides of the cliffs were 2,000 feet above the water.
Western Brook Pond is a glacier-carved, landlocked freshwater fjord featuring 600-metre cliffs (nearly 2,000 feet) with cascading waterfalls, pristine wilderness, and picture-perfect vistas. It is 10 miles long and 540 feet deep, and despite its understated name — the Dictionary of Newfoundland English defines a “pond” simply as “a natural body of still water of any size” — UNESCO calls it a “globally significant landscape.”
Western Brook Pond and Trout River Pond to the south were once fjords open to the sea. After glaciers melted, their weight released from the land, allowing the crust to spring upward in a process called isostatic rebound — the coastal land rose, cutting the fjords off from the sea and allowing them to fill with freshwater. The highest waterfall inside the gorge is Pissing Mare Falls, a tiered plunge of 343 metres (1,125 feet) — the highest waterfall in the province and the 31st highest in Canada. Boat tours operate from a dock accessed via a 3-kilometre walk from the Route 430 parking area. To see the iconic views from the clifftop requires a full-day gorge hike or the 35-kilometre Long Range Traverse.
We finished our time in Gros Morne at a “kitchen party” — in Newfoundland the people would gather in kitchens with makeshift musical instruments for drinking and singing folk music. The first couple of songs were traditional Newfoundland songs, which was great, but luckily they transitioned into songs that everyone knew (Country Roads, etc) and handed out instruments. It was a good time.
The kitchen party tradition originated from the Irish immigrants who settled in Newfoundland and Labrador, who brought with them the love for music, dance, and gathering in the heart of the home — the kitchen. These events often involve lively Newfoundland folk music, sea shanties, and dancing, with instruments like fiddles and accordions. The tradition predates formal music venues entirely — in isolated outport communities accessible only by boat for much of their history, the kitchen was the only gathering space large enough.
The tradition of household entertainment continues to thrive, and on a Saturday night makeshift jam sessions still unfold in kitchens, living rooms and basements around the province. Over the last century Newfoundland and Labrador music has grown far beyond the kitchen, absorbing a broad range of influences, adapting to new technology, and developing as an entertainment and a business. Today’s professional musicians strive to strike a balance, retaining the spontaneity and intimacy of the kitchen party while bringing their work to concert halls, sophisticated recording projects and international audiences.
We had a good first couple of days in Green Point but on our 3rd day, the rain moved in so we re-visited Deer Lake — raining there too and not much to do, so we went to the next town of Corner Brook. Partly sunny there and we were able to scout out the town a bit as this was our stopping place for a few days later. When we returned on our way out of Newfoundland, we drove along the Bay of Islands out to Bottle Cove and stumbled upon the landing point of Captain Cook. Back in town, we connected the dots between the old pulp and paper factory, a park sponsored by the paper company around an old pond and dam, and our hotel — the Gyn Mill Inn, “Mill” being the key word. Our hotel had been a place that housed the executives for the paper company back in the 1920s.
After leaving Corner Brook we had 2 solid days of driving and ferry to get to Quebec City — Canada is big. The ferry from Port aux Basques to North Sydney, Nova Scotia takes about 7 hours; from there it’s another full day’s drive to Quebec City. Book the ferry in advance — Marine Atlantic fills up, especially in August and September. Corner Brook is worth the scout if it’s on your route: the Captain Cook landing at Bottle Cove is a genuinely obscure discovery, and the Gyn Mill Inn has more history than it advertises.
