Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Postcard Province

My wife and I flew out of St. John's this morning after a week on the magnificent island of Newfoundland. It is truly impossible to relate the wealth of spectacular scenery across that Province; indeed, as we often expressed to one another, every turn in the road was another picture postcard!

The combination of rugged, glacial terrain, expansive waterscapes and unspoiled wilderness produced an endless variety of breathtaking vistas. Newfoundland is easily the most scenic region that we have visited and we took twice as many photos as we have on any other vacation; we would have taken more but the locals, apparently victims of scenery fatigue, provide few pull-offs along the winding, back-country roads.

Our visit, of course, was all too brief. Though we managed to hit the more famous highlights, some of which are described in recent blogs, there were whole sections of the island that we could not explore; a second visit is high on our priority list. As is often the case, some of the less publicized trails and locations were among our favorites; these included the coastal trails at Salvage (near Terra Nova National Park) and the Old Man Lighthouse Trail at Trout River, just south of Gros Morne National Park.