A week in Newfoundland - part 3 - Bonavista, Elliston, and Terra Nova NP

In the morning, we headed north from Bonavista on Cape Shore Road to the Cape Bonavista lighthouse and there I saw my first iceberg.  It wasn't huge, but there it was and I was excited.  We were a little late for icebergs, spring and early summer are the prime time to see the icebergs traveling iceberg alley from Greenland.  There is even a website devoted to iceberg locations that you can check.  The lighthouse is also a good place to see birds and whales.

Not far from the lighthouse, is Dungeon Provincial Park, which is a collapsed see cave.  It wasn't as exciting as I thought it might be with the ominous name, but there were some nice coastal views.  And then continuing south on the east coast, we headed to Elliston.  Ever since turning off the TransCanada Highway, we started seeing signs for the Bird Island Puffin Festival in Elliston.  When we arrived, there didn't seem to be much going on with the festival, but it is a great place to see puffins.  There is an island just off the coast that has a puffin colony, along with other birds, and you can walk to the edge of the coast and sit there and watch the puffins on the island and in the water. 

Elliston has also been declared the Root Cellar Capital of the World and there are root cellars all over the place.  A few are set up so you can go into them.

After Elliston, we headed south on the west coast of the peninsula to the Bonavista Social Club, a popular restaurant down a steep hill, overlooking the coast, in Newman's Cove.  We arrived relatively early and people were already rolling in.  Fortunately, we were able to get a table, before the wait-list started.  Despite being crowded and a little disorganized, the food was excellent.  I had cod and tomato soup and a caesar salad.

Then on to Terra Nova National Park, which was about 150km away.  The visitor's center is at the north end of the park near Traytown, so we drove through most of the park, before we were able to get any information.  However, the info desk was very helpful and was able to direct us to a couple short hikes to see a bit of the park.

First we drove up the road to Ochre Hill to the lookout tower for a nice view over the park.

Then we went across the road and hiked the easy 3km trail around Sandy Pond.

Our final destination for the day, was Glovertown, near the north end of Terra Nova National Park.  There is not a lot in Glovertown and I had found a place to stay with a kitchenette, so we could cook dinner.  We arrived after 6:00 on Sunday night and there was nearly nothing open.  We had some groceries with us, and were lucky to find one convenience store to get the rest of what we needed.

After a bit of a rain shower and dinner, we drove the road from Glovertown to Salvage, looking for moose.  We didn't find any moose, but the views were nice.