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Dale Wilson
L'Anse aux Meadows
L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
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Parks Canada
L'Anse aux Meadows
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Parks Canada
L'Anse aux Meadows
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Parks Canada
L'Anse aux Meadows
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Sheldon Stone
Port au Choix
Port au Choix National Historic Site
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Parks Canada
Port au Choix
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Parks Canada
Port au Choix
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Parks Canada
Red Bay
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Parks Canada
Red Bay Interpretation Exhibit
By Kim Vokey
Newfoundland and Labrador has been on your bucket list for some time and this year you’re finally going to do it – hook up the RV and make it happen! Here’s how to experience some of the highlights along the Viking Trail Route 430 - North Beyond Gros Morne National Park.
Travelling north from Gros Morne National Park on the Viking Trail Route 430 provides many opportunities to pull over, take in the ocean smells and experience the hospitality of the rural communities along the Great Northern Peninsula. Venturing just 13 kilometers off the Viking Trail onto Route 428 through Port Saunders, approximately 110km north of Gros Morne National Park, will bring you to the community of Port au Choix. At Port au Choix you can explore a rugged coastline of barrens, forests, and bays, and lose yourself in 5000 years of human history! Discover a place where the wealth of the sea has drawn the Palaeoeskimo, Maritime Archaic, ancestors of the Beothuk, French, and English cultures for centuries. Archaeologists searched many years for a site such as this one, which sheds new light on our understanding of native peoples in this part of the world.
The Parks Canada Port au Choix National Historic Site Visitor Centre is a great place to start your exploration with exhibits of original artifacts uncovered on site starting in the 1920s, a full-scale archaeological diorama of a Dorset house, a film, experienced bilingual staff, guided interpretation programs throughout the summer season and a gift shop to pick up some souvenirs.
After exploring the Visitor Center you can venture out onto the spectacular landscape, where the Dorset Trail leads you across the windswept Limestone Barrens filled with hidden botanical gems to the ancient Palaeoeskimo site at Phillip’s Garden. A short drive takes you to the iconic Point Riche Lighthouse where you can see the Dorset Doorway or explore the limestone seabed for fossils. See caribou, seals, seabirds and whales along the Point Riche Trail. Drive to old Port au Choix and take the Phillip`s Garden Trail. As you make your way along over the ancient limestone seabeds, you are walking in the footsteps of the ancient cultures that first inhabited this spectacular landscape.
Returning to town, visit the 4,000-year-old Maritime Archaic Burial Ground near the French Rooms Cultural Center. The town has all the basic services including grocery stores, a bank, restaurants, a gas station and RV camping.
Continuing your journey north along the Viking Trail Route 430 will eventually bring you to the magical junction turning on to Route 436 that leads to the Parks Canada L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, located on the tip of the Northern Peninsula. This is the first and only known site established by the Viking Age Norse in North America, and the earliest evidence of European settlement on this continent, making this a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site was a home-away-from-home for Norse explorers at the gateway to Vinland in the early 11th century.
The Parks Canada Visitor Centre Exhibits contextualize the site through a variety of media, including the display of original artifacts uncovered during archaeological excavations on site, video demonstrations of Viking iron smelting and Aboriginal knapping processes, a 3D model of what the Norse camp would have looked like 1,000 years ago, a 2/3 scale replica of a færing Viking boat, with audio recordings of the Vinland Sagas, and an introductory film. The experienced bilingual staff will also provide information on the variety of experiences offered on site, such as interpretation programs, and special events like the Westward Viking Festival that occurs annually from July 21-31. Highlights of the Westward Viking Festival include local, national and international entertainment, music, storytelling, chefs, culinary delights, and Parks Canada’s Viking re-enactors thrown in for some good old Norse fun.
Returning to the Viking Trail Route 430, and heading north brings you to the largest community in the area St. Anthony, where there are many tourist attractions, services and private RV campgrounds.
Considering its taken you this long to visit Newfoundland, it’s highly worth while taking a side trip to southern Labrador, just 9 kilometers across the Strait of Belle Isle from the Island of Newfoundland to the coast of Quebec and Labrador. The Strait of Belle Isle ferry offers drive-on/drive-off service, and operates between May and early January. A paved highway links the communities of the Labrador Straits extending for 80 km from L'Anse au Clair (just a few kilometres from Blanc Sablon) to Canada’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Red Bay Basque Whaling Station. The largest and most complete example of early industrial-scale whaling in the world, the property includes remains of rendering ovens, cooperages, a wharf, living quarters, a cemetery, underwater shipwrecks, whale bone deposits, and a fascinating collection of rare and unique artifacts. Two interpretation centres, hiking trails, a boat tour to Saddle Island, guided tours, and a whale exhibit offer a diversity of activities and experiences. Come discover a captivating story of fortune and of loss!
Visiting the Parks Canada Interpretation Centres unveils Red Bay’s compelling story of hardship, exploitation and profit in the 16th-century. Explore an extensive and world-class collection of original artifacts, models, and the world’s oldest known chalupa boat. The Right Whale Exhibit at the Red Bay Town Hall introduces you to the North Atlantic Right and Bowhead Whales that were the primary resource of this industry and shares current efforts to protect the species.
Within the region there is a full range of automotive and RV services including gasoline and diesel stations, repair shops, propane outlets, waste disposal sites, etc.
For more information about the services, programs, or entrance fees at the Parks Canada National Historic Sites in Western Newfoundland and Labrador phone 709-458-2417, or email portauchoix.info@pc.gc.ca, lanseauxmeadows.info@pc.gc.ca redbay.info@pc.gc.ca
For more information about the attractions, services and transportation links along the Viking Trail (Route 430) visit www.newfoundlandandlabrador.com and www.vikingtrail.org