Tablelands

Yesterday I mentioned that one of the popular adventures at Gros Morne is the boat trip on Western Brook Pond. The other is to visit the Tablelands and "See the Earth Naked", as they say in the Visitor's Guide. The Tablelands of Gros Morne is one of the few places where Earth's mantle is revealed. Pushed in place as continents collided almost half a billion years ago, its orange weathered rock is from the middle layer of the Earth. Shaped by glaciers less than 15,000 years ago, today few plants grow in the Tablelands' toxic soils. This barren landscape is one of the best examples of the Earth's mantle and today we took the Tablelands Trail with a Park Naturalist. 

Our Parks Canada Naturalist, Deanna, is a recent biology major from British Columbia. She is very excited about Gros Morne and is beginning to love rocks. She was very knowledgable about the Tablelands and had a very engaging way of explaining things.

There are a few plants that do well on the Tablelands; they are mostly carnivorous plants like the Pitcher Plant above. 

This is the end of the Tablelands groomed trail. Deanna explained that Gros Morne is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it played an important role in the validation of plate tectonics. (There are 15 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Canada; 3 of them are in Newfoundland Labrador.)

We thought that Mr. Spock might be fascinated with the Tablelands - he was. This forest that is around Frederick and Mr. Spock is hundreds of years old.

This picture was taken from across the valley and shows the flat top of the Tablelands. 

The blog is being posted late this evening because we went out to the local pub for dinner and a show of traditional Newfoundland Labrador songs and humor.  

This group, called Anchors Aweigh, have been performing for 18 years. They had a lot of stories and a lot of energy.

The accordion player played at least four different accordions and squeeze boxes.  He had a great persona on stage.

This is Wade Jones, a local music teacher at Rocky Harbour Academy. He explained that in the old days, when people gathered for a Kitchen Party, everyone brought their instrument.  If you didn't play an instrument, they would bring out the "ugly stick." Basically a percussion instruments made out of a broom, Wade could get a pretty good sound out of it.

As part of the show, they asked people where they were from, province by province and would then sing a song from that province, or at least a song that had some connection. After going through the provinces of Canada, they moved "south of the border." When he asked for states, we said Rhode Island and that stumped them.  They said they have had about three or four people from Rhode Island in the last 18 years and have tried to come up with a song or singer connected with RI, but with no luck.  They asked us if we knew of any, and we admitted we didn't. Someone called out New Jersey, and they played a Bruce Springsteen song. The only other state was New York City, NY. They said Harry Belafonte was from NYC, so they did"Day-o".