No matter where you are at Gros Morne National Park, you can almost always see the flat top amber color mountain - the Tablelands. The rocks on tablelands originated from the Earth's mantle and was forced up from the depths during a plate collision half billion years ago.
Upon reading about Tablelands, we decided before we got to Gros Morne, we would hike the tablelands off trail. How romantic it would be to explore the path forward on a half billion year old rocky mountain!
We hiked the Tablelands off trail on our 2nd day of
our 8 day trip to Canada last Summer. It was a sunny but cool day, and perfect for hiking on Tablelands. Our original plan was to hike to the top of table land following approximately A-B route (see map below, note that there is no trail).
After about 1km paved trail from parking lot to point A, we were at the mouth of the "Winter House Brook" Canyon. It is about 5km distance from A to B, and we took the right hand side of the brook to hike. The initial 3 km is shallow but uneven. The right hand side of the canyon becomes vertical cliff from 3km onward, we had to cross the brook to the left hand side. The remaining path to the top is still very steep, but manageable for us, and we had to go slowly. A big patch of snow near the top awaits us, water was rushing off the patch, fell through a chasm and flows down hill. This and other streams from the top form the head water of winter house brook.
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| Winter house brook canyon |
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| Head water for Winter house brool |
When we reached top of the table lands, we looked at our left, it was all ember rocks, big and small; looked to the front and right, there are many water pools, some grass and low bushes by the pool. It felt like an alien land!
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| Top of the tablelands at the start winter house brook canyon |
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| There are many ponds like this on top of the tablelands |
It took us less than 2 hours to get to the top. Since we planned the whole day for Tablelands, we decided to hike the whole route A - E. Lily was bit scared because there was no trail marks, and no landmarks. I was on the other hand, did not feel afraid at all because I could see the Boone bay and mountain ranges all the time on top of the tablelands - they were my compasses. I used a downloaded topographic map on the phone and the Boone bay to decide which way to go. I was aiming at the next canyon, but Nicholas and Lily wanted to locate the bowel on the tablelands map. Tension rose, and eventually I stopped charging ahead even though we saw the next canyon that should allow us to descend. Nicholas and Lily compared the map on the phone and the tablelands off trail hiking guide, and correctly located the bowel. We made a 100 degree turn to the bowel. The bowel is very steep, but Nicholas helped to find the paths to allow safe descend through zigzag on the steep cliff. We finished the A-E 10 mile off trail hiking in 7 hours.
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| Top of tablelands is featureless, but faraway landmarks can be used as direction guide |
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| The Bowel |
In addition to ember rocks, blue sky, snow patches, water pools, running streams, grandeur canyons and seemingly endless table top, there were many small features that stimulated our curiosity.
we enjoyed the off trail hike despite the tension and anxiety on top of the tablelands.
After about 1km paved trail from parking lot to point A, we were at the mouth of the "Winter House Brook" Canyon. It is about 5km distance from A to B, and we took the right hand side of the brook to hike. The initial 3 km is shallow but uneven. The right hand side of the canyon becomes vertical cliff from 3km onward, we had to cross the brook to the left hand side. The remaining path to the top is still very steep, but manageable for us, and we had to go slowly. A big patch of snow near the top awaits us, water was rushing off the patch, fell through a chasm and flows down hill. This and other streams from the top form the head water of winter house brook.
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