Rose Lighthouse

A day trip from the Grand Codroy RV/Tenting Campground, called the Granite Coast Drive, took us first to Cape Ray where there is a lighthouse and a historic heritage site.

Just below the Cape Ray Lighthouse is a Dorset Paleoeskimo site that was first discovered by the lightkeeper's son. There were some nice interpretive panels that explained what archeologists have been able to determine from excavating the site. It was probably a spring camp where seals could be hunted during their spring migration. 

This is the third iteration of the Cape Ray Lighthouse which was first erected in 1871. The first two were destroyed by fires and this concrete lighthouse has been functioning since 1960.

The Cape Ray Lighthouse is surrounded by the Tableland Mountains, shown above.  Can you see why they are called the Tablelands?

 The end of the highway in Southwestern Newfoundland is at Harbour Le Cou. There are communities further along the coast but the only means of reaching them are by ferry that travels the coast once a week.

Just before the end of the highway is one of the last granite lighthouses on the Atlantic seaboard, and one of the  most picturesque. It is completely appropriate that it should be called the Rose Lighthouse - in honor of my sister, Rose - who loves lighthouses. Formally called the Rose Blanche Lighthouse (a corruption of the French "roche blanche" meaning "white rock"), local workers built the lighthouse in 1871-73 using granite from a nearby quarry. D & T Stevenson, a Scottish lighthouse design company,  and father and uncle to Robert Louis Stevenson, assisted in the project. The structure was reconstructed in 1999 using most of the original materials.

The front of the beautiful Rose Blanche Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse is now part museum and furnished with antiques and some reproduced pieces representative of the 19th century.

The kitchen. There are recorded stories of neighborhood children coming to the lighthouse because the keeper had the only phonograph in the area. It was a real source of entertainment on a Sunday afternoon.

Another view of the Rose Lighthouse with the fishing village of Rose Blanche in the background. Further to the right is another fishing village, inaccessible by road, that is called Petites. According to an exhibit sign, Petites has a wooden Methodist Church, build in 1850, that is the oldest in North America still standing on its original foundation. 

The lighthouse is reached via a 10-minute walk along a winding gravel path from the parking area where there are other museum buildings in the typical Newfoundland vibrant colors.

Returning back along the coast we took a short trail, the Barachois Falls Trail, to a scenic waterfall. 

We walked about 2 km on the Barachois Falls Trail through bogs and tuckamores. 

The next fishing village along the coast is Isle aux Morts, the site of many shipwrecks, hence the name, Island of the Dead. Isle aux Morts has a rich maritime heritage of fishing and sailing with many tales of shipwrecks and loss of lives in the treacherous waters offshore. However, it is a town noted for its heroism. One of the first families who settled in the area, in the early 1800's, was the George Harvey Family, well known for their heroic rescues. In 1828, the Harvey family, with the aid of their Newfoundland dog, Hairyman, rescued 163 people from the sinking brig 'Despatch', shipwrecked on the rocks off Isle aux Morts. They made another daring rescue in 1838, saving 25 crew members from the Glasgow ship, the 'Rankin'. 

There is a hiking trail called the Harvey Trail, a gravel, coastal trail honoring the site of the daring rescues by the George Harvey family. The trail includes interpretation panels that describe in detail the rescues. The waters off the coast were blue and beautiful today.

This is a replica of the boat used by the Harvey family in their rescues. Just 12 feet long. The real hero of the rescues was their Newfoundland dog called Hairyman.

Close to the campground we took this picture of a hanging valley in the Long Range Mountains that border the Trans Canada Highway at this point. Hanging valleys are the product of different rates of erosion between the main valley and the valleys that enter it along its sides. The floors of the tributary valleys are eroded and deepened at a slower rate than the floor of the main valley so the difference between the depths of the two valleys steadily increases over time. The tributaries are left high above the main valley, hanging on the edges, their rivers and streams entering the main valley by either a series of small waterfalls or a single impressive fall. I think it probably doesn't show in this picture but the lip of this hanging valley has a small notch eroded by a river.