Not enough hours in a day......

 (This is the official flower of Newfoundland - found all over Gros Morne National park!)

 The problem with the type of road trip we are taking is that often, while trying to see "everything", we end up seeing not enough of anything.....  This is particularly true today:  we have  only one full day in Gros Morne National park, and one very full day just does not do it justice.  But we tried our best!
It helped that we woke up to bright sunshine, right outside our hotel room door!

We started early in the southern part of the park at the very unusual place call " the Table Lands".

Even from the highway, you can see it is unusual - it does not look like it belongs here, among the tree covered hills.  That's because it does not....
the Table Lands is one of the few places on earth where the mantle is exposed:  when the European and American tectonic plates bumped into each other, one pushed the earth's mantle on top of the other.  In 1909, this is the place where they proved the motion of tectonic plates by discovering sea floor right next to the earth mantle.  The place still looks otherworldly.... 

The rocks from the mantle are a complex chemical mix of iron, magnesium and some silicate, forming peridotite.  The reason they look orangish is because the iron is oxydising.  When the peridotite comes to the surface and is exposed to water,

it forms serpentinite (so called because it resembles the scales of snakes).

 Very little grows there because the rocks are toxic, but the pitcher plant - a carnivorous plant that is the official plant of Newfoundland and Labrador is everywhere  ("feed me Seymour....").

Joe and I walked the very well maintained trail through the Table Lands (Canadians are very good at trails!), and then,

as Joe walked through the visitor center- learning everything I wrote just now- I climbed to the top of a hill that provides a great lookout to the entire valley.  It was a short but steep walk (about 1.5 miles up and 1000 feet) and well worth it for the panoramic views.

  At the top, these 2 local people where having a snack and literally forced fed me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich:  I looked hungry, and when people from Newfoundland see someone who looks hungry - they feed them!  No arguing about it!  (it was a good sandwich, and I love the attitude).

The trail looped around though some snowy marshes ( my feet got quite wet....),

but most of it was this beautifully boarded trail.

We then went to the northern part of the park, where the landscape is dramatically different.  On the way, we met a caribou!  (we saw a moose too this morning, but, after driving hundreds of miles yesterday without seeing a single one, we were not prepared for it and were so surprised that we did not take a picture.....).  That caribou was shedding and looked to us like an old male (because caribou tend to travel in herds, but we could be wrong).  We were very happy about this meeting!.

We continued on to the majestic Westbrook pond - formed by glaciers a long time ago  It is almost a fjord, but does not reach the sea.  It has deep and cold water and is one of the purest lakes anywhere.  It is however very fragile:  It is a pond - so water does not get renewed much.  They protect it by making access to it difficult - you have to park 3km away and walk to it.

 The walk is easy and pretty however and provides nice opportunities to see the old cliffs and the lakes and brooks around them.

Finally, we went back to the lighthouse and walked by the shore.  (I love the chairs placed strategically in spots where one should stop and sit!)

By 6pm, we were very tired (I put 30,000 steps on the fitbit!) and had Stouffer's frozen lasagna in our hotel room...  it was good!