Whales, Icebergs & Caribou: L'Anse aux Meadows and St. Anthony

When we decided to visit Gros Morne National Park, we knew we’d make the drive to L’Anse aux Meadows. After all, how could we come this far and not visit the only confirmed Viking settlement in North America?

The drive was fairly uneventful – we stopped at Port au Choix to help break up the drive, had some pretty good fish and chips at a restaurant/convenience store somewhere along the Viking Trail, and listened to podcasts to keep ourselves entertained. Most of the drive is along the coastline, which is dotted with small fishing communities:

As we approached L’Anse aux Meadows, we spotted an iceberg in the distance (you can just see it in the third photo below).

For anyone wondering if L’Anse aux Meadows is worth the drive: yes. The landscape is beautiful, and quite different from Gros Morne, and the history of the area is fascinating (there’s actually a pretty good write-up on L’Anse aux Meadows on Wikipedia). Hannah immediately wanted to dress up in one of the costumes at the recreated base camp, and she got Adam in on it too.

We had an early dinner at The Daily Catch, then headed to the Grenfell Heritage Hotel in St. Anthony for the night. The next morning, we drove back to L’Anse aux Meadows to hike the Birchy Nuddick trail. The 2 km hike follows the coastline, then turns inland, taking you past past bogs and a small lake.

Later that afternoon, we joined a Northland Discovery iceberg and whale watching boat tour. I’ve been whale watching a few times in Cape Cod and Boston, but it was my first time on such a small boat, and it was Adam and Hannah’s first time period. It was a pretty chilly ride, but our guides were funny and extremely knowledgeable, and we had a great time.

Pretty quickly, we spotted a pair of humpback whales who decided to put on a show, breaching and repeatedly slapping their tails and fins on the water. It was pretty spectacular, especially for Adam and Hannah’s first whale watching experience.

After our whale sighting, we headed further out to see a massive iceberg, which is apparently a rare sight so late in the season.

The boat’s captain scooped up a chunk of the iceberg that had fallen into the water, and we all got to have a taste. Hannah loves to snack on ice cubes, so this treat was right up her alley.

Believe it or not, we spotted another pair of humpback whales near the iceberg, and briefly witnessed them lunge feeding against the rocks. We couldn’t have asked for a better finish to our stay in St. Anthony.

Our tour guide mentioned a group of caribou spotted by others at Port au Choix, so we decided to stop in one more time on our drive back to Deer Lake the next day. Just as we started down the road to the Point Riche lighthouse, we saw them. Three caribou crossed the road in front of us and headed over the hill toward the water.

We spent our final night in Deer Lake and flew home the next day. We had such an amazing time in Newfoundland, and I still can’t believe all that we got to see and do.

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