Lots of hiking today as it has been a sunny day at Gros Morne National Park. One of our hikes was to Western Brook Pond where we took a cruise and a billion pictures. Most bodies of water over here are named ponds, whereas we'd call them lakes. The steep sidewalls (to 2200') and the numerous waterfalls of Western Brook Pond remind us of the Misty Fjord area of SE Alaska. In our Alaska cruising we see hanging glaciers but here they are hanging valleys. The lake portion having been eroded much deeper and faster than the valleys (and streams) that feed into it.
Western Brook Pond was a salt water fjord at one time but continent shifting has folded rock layers between the pond and the ocean. We tromped over 4 of the folded rock layers to get to the pond.
Between each rock layer was a NL bog and lots of naturalist signs describing characteristics of the bog:
peat to 12' depth;
caribou lichen: the main source of nourishment for the caribou in the winter;
carnivorous plants: such as the Pitcher Plant which is NL's official provincial plant (can you imagine a meat-eating plant as the official plant! Hello, Audrey!!);
and creatures (we saw our first Newfie moose).
