Heritage Tree

Have I mentioned before how wonderful the Newfoundland Labrador Travel and Tourism website is? There are also wonderful Information/Welcome Centers all across the Province. At the one we stopped at in Placentia, we picked up four "Things to see & do in the ...." little fold-out sheets, for the 4 regions on the western peninsula. There is one entitled "Things to see & do in the Humber Valley", and that is what we used today and will follow tomorrow as well.  

There are two scenic drives, one entitled Captain Cook's Trail, which we will do tomorrow, and the other is called Admiral Palliser's trail, which travels the north side of Humber River/Bay of Islands, and we followed that trail today. 

Stop number one was the Newfoundland & Labrador Heritage Tree. It is located at the Marble Mountain Ski Resort, off the Trans Canada Highway, in Steady Brook. Since didn't know what a Heritage Tree was, the first thing we did was drive right past it. We went over to the ski lodge,where there were lots of people congregating, and asked someone where it was.

What a great way to celebrate your heritage!

The Vikings are right there, to claim first European "discovery". 

The Heritage Tree is still a work in progress.  You can read more about it here - http://members.tripod.com/heritage_tree/home.html

The people who were congregating at the Ski Lodge were all wearing safety harnesses and carrying big clips. The signs on the vans they were heading for said - "Marble Zip Tours". 

Almost all of the adults got in the vans, but some children, and one adult, headed for this zip-line structure. Pictured above is just one side. There were three outer challenging "walls".

A young girl on her final descent.

The adults in the vans were headed up the mountain, for the top of Steady Brook Falls. That is where we were headed, too, to take the hiking trail to the falls. As we were hiking up to the falls we could hear the sound of wheels rolling along wire and could see flashes of people whizzing by overhead, through the trees. I tried to take pictures of them whizzing past, but all I got were trees.

Here is Steady Brook Falls, a very nice falls, about 2 km from the base of the mountain. On either side of the falls, in the trees to the left and the right, are platforms like the one in the picture above. One-by-one people would zip from one side of the falls to the other, on an ever descending trajectory.

Right in the center of the picture, maybe you can make out one of the zip stations, to the right of the falls.

Next we headed to The Man in the Mountain; how could we resist? It does take some imagination, but there he is, right in the middle of the picture. As Frederick said, once you find him, that's all you can see. According to local legend, there is buried treasure on Shellbird Island in the Humber River. If you look closely you will see the face of a man in the rock formation overlooking the island. The "Old Man in the Mountain" is said to be guarding the hidden treasure."

Here is some help - from an exhibit in the parking area at the base of the mountain. What helped me find the face was the dark triangular shaped rock that looks like a hat on the man's head. 

In the same parking area is an exhibit that commemorates the Trans-Canada Trail. When the Winter Olympics were held in Canada in 2010, the Olympic Torch was greeted in Corner Brook at this site.

This is the car in the parking area; to give you some idea of scale.  The mountains are definitely getting bigger!

Along the Admiral Palliser Trail, in the town of Meadows, this view, the Meadows Point Lookout, was touted as, "Spectacular view of the Bay of Islands". We are standing on a pleasant beach, and the view is nice, but "spectacular"?

Many trucks have these guards on the front - as moose protection.

In Gillams there was, "A beautiful trail that leads to a scenic waterfall." We took it.

This trail, and this waterfall, more than made up for the under-whelming "Meadows Point Lookout". The trail that we took was about 2 hours. 

Here we are, eating our lunch at the falls. Not spectacular in height, but so lovely.

Since the water level was low, we were able to go out onto the rocks at the top of the falls.

I thought that the water action patterns on these rocks were interesting. At times, the water flows over, and is carving out, these rocks.

On the river bank, on the other side, were these interesting folded and bent rocks.

This is the village of Cox Cove, at the very end of highway 440 - it doesn't go any further. These structures are boat ramps and the log bases are filled with rocks.

Across the Bay of Islands at Cox Cove.

Another view of Cox Cove.

Cox Cove.

Returning from Cox Cove we stopped in McIver's and took this picture across the Humber River as it is flowing into the Bay of Island. Now this could be called "spectacular".

That small island is called Tern Island - another bird rock.

Maybe you can just make out the patch of snow on the mountain across the river? There were several of them that we could see, but the camera just barely picks this one up.