Sunday, July 12, 2009 – Day 38

A Lighthouse and Slate Covered Beach
It was Sunday and our only day to explore Gros Morne National Park. We had been warned that to properly explore this park one needs to spend 3 to 7 days. We quickly could see why. The area that this park covered was enormous and the types of things to see were so varied. We did not have time to take the boat trip in the park which would have involved a 1 to 2 km hike before a boat trip that would take us into the Fjords of the parks largest lake. Instead we went to a National Historic site that was located inside of a Lighthouse.

The lighthouse itself did not interest the kids much as it was mostly a visual description on the early settlers of the area with photos and description panels. What did interest them however was exploring the trails around the lighthouse. After walking around the lighthouse itself, they walked down to the shoreline which was filled with slate. They were so excited to see so much slate for them to pick through. After seeing the Halifax Citadel’s Schoolhouse demonstration on writing on slate, they were anxious to have some slate boards of their own. They each came back from the beach with picture frame sized pieces of slate and slate pens to write with. To erase their work from the board they just had to wet the board down. As with all other discoveries that the kids found and collected, we had the kids store their collections in a compartment under our RV. Too many feathers, slates and other rocks tend to clutter up the limited space we have inside our motorhome.

Art Lessons
Our next stop was to take in some free outdoor art lessons with plenty of natural beauty to draw. Many free activities are provided throughout the park and this was the Sunday activity. At a boat dock next to the Aquarium in the park, a group of University Students were providing art supplies and giving tips on drawing the scenery in the park. The kids went to work right away and created their own artwork to remember the park by. Where do we put it all?
With our ferry leaving first thing in the morning we drove the 2.5 hours to Port-aux-Basques. It was hard to leave this park as there was so much more we wanted to explore but as with any holiday across Canada, there comes a time when you must move on. The drive in parts was extremely windy and it was hard at times to keep the RV in our lane of traffic. The wind swept over us as we drove along the coastline. As we reached Port-aux-Basques the sun was setting creating a picture perfect sunset. As there were few service stations on our route we also drove into this town on fumes… but we made it. We quickly found a quiet spot behind a high school to park for the night and went soundly off to sleep.