Day 9 - St. John's, Newfoundland to Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Today's plan featured a very long drive from St. John's, Newfoundland, which is located on the Eastern edge of Newfoundland to Gros Morne National Park, which is located on the Western edge. The drive was going to be about 435 miles. I woke up early, packed up my gear, ate some breakfast and then hit the road.

About halfway into the drive, it started raining. It wasn't particularly heavy, but it was enough to be annoying. Fortunately, when I reached my destination, the rain had become more like scattered showers, and shortly after I arrived, it stopped altogether. Unfortunately, even though it wasn't raining, it was still very cloudy, so the views of the landscape weren't great.

The scenery in Gros Morne National Park is absolutely stunning. It was really a bummer that there weren't clear skies and sunshine. Nevertheless, I made the best of things. It was already pretty late in the day, so I decided to go the park's visitors center to get some information for tomorrow. I spoke with someone there, and they gave me a few ideas for some hikes that I'll take tomorrow. After I left the visitors center, I went into one of the small villages located right on the water called Rocky Harbor. There was a small hotel there that had a pub, so I went in for a beer. There was no one else there, so I finished my beer pretty quickly and left.

The weather had improved enough that I decided to backtrack through the park so that I could get some pictures from the some of the viewpoints that I had bypassed on my way in, due to the bad weather. After that, I found my campground and did the usual!

Tomorrow, I'm going to do a couple of hikes in the park, and then I head further North to the town of St. Barbe, which is where I'll be catching a ferry to take me to Labrador ... That's when the adventure REALLY begins, as I drive the Trans Labrador Highway through Labrador and into Quebec.

I don't expect to have any cellular or internet access after today, so I'll be posting the rest of the trip when I get back!