Today we spent the entire day at Terra Nova National Park. We started at the visitors center and working on our XPlorers books. They had a cool touch tank stocked full of sea stars, crabs and sea urchins. The water was ridiculously cold.
We learned to tie some cool knots.
We saw a lot of whale bones.
We hiked the coastal trail for 2km in and then 2km out. The trail was closed at the 2km mark for maintenance. We worked on our books as we hiked. We had to do tree rubbings from various types of trees.
A reward at the end of the trail was a beautiful beach spot with amazing views.
Next we grabbed a GPS walking interpretation and walked the Heritage Trail (2km) and learned about the logging industry that used to be here. It was neat to discover how they lived here in the winter and then in the coastal fishing towns in the summer. To make ends meet they worked many jobs. After the hike we came across the Amazing Race Terra Nova. It was a family friendly race through 2km in the park with obstacles and games at each stop. Sadly we couldn’t join in but it was fun to watch!
We drove to the campground and tried to find a beaver lodge but were unsuccessful. We were on the right trail (Campground trail) but after the 1km we were told to walk we couldn’t find it. We walked to about 2km and gave up and turned round. The directions we were given led us to a place we didn’t feel comfy walking so we gave up and will get better directions and try again tomorrow.
We then hiked a 4km trail around Sandy Pond. It was part bog so we saw a lot of pitcher plants and wild orchids again. We were hoping to see caribou but it was the wrong time of day.
There is a lovely beach at the end of the trail that we plan to go back to if we can.
We hiked around 10 miles or 16 kilometers today. Everyone was exhausted. We got back to the campground and played at the playground for a while with our new friends and then called it a night to journal and unwind.