Exploring Newfoundland: the Rose Blanche Lighthouse, and Barachois Falls
Friday, June 5th, Day 8 of the trip, was our first day of exploring Newfoundland, and it was a beauty, with a fine example of what passion can accomplish with a ruined stone building, and a walk to a nice waterfall. We also picked up a rented Starlink Mini to make things easier, for blogging but also for the required Zoom meetings for the clinical trial I’m participating in.
We were off the ferry at Port aux Basques by about 07:45, and headed east to the Rose Blanche Lighthouse, 46 km away. We had been up and down about whether or not to make this detour, but now consider it to be a must-see. The first photo shows Highway 470, looking back to the west.
We stopped at a Welcome to Rose Blanche pullout, mostly because of this distant view of the lighthouse.
While looking around, I spotted this beautifully-crafted stone replica of the lighthouse, rather off in the bushes instead of in a really prominent location!
The last 3 km or so to the lighthouse access is a gravel road, which had been freshly gravelled and graded.
The road ends at this little complex of buildings. The red building is the office and gift shop, to the right is a snack bar, to the left the washrooms, to the distant right a B&B, and hidden below to the right is a little fishing museum.
Admission is now $7 per person, which I now consider to be a great deal given what we experienced. Right around the corner on the walking path, the scenery is spectacular.
The lighthouse soon comes into view.
A couple of large plaques describe significant shipwrecks.
Been there, done that! 🙂
It’s rather hard to believe what the society started with.
I climbed up the stone staircase. Access to the area where the light was is via a metal ladder, which has a sign prohibiting use.
I walked out to the point beyond the lighthouse to get the next photo.
The outhouse at the lighthouse is very scenic! 🙂
The walk is intended as a circle trip, with the return taking you up and over a rocky bluff.
A viewing deck up top gives a 360-degree view, including grat views of the community of Rose Blanche.
The last bit of the trail back down.
My walk totalled 1.62 km, with 35 meters of elevation gain.
From the lighthouse it was less than 9 km back to the Barachois Falls trail. There’s parking for 3-4 vehicles depending on the size.
The trail is in excelent condition – it’s about half gavel, half boardwalk.
I shot the falls from a few locations both on the trail and off to the side. The trail is 1.6 km return, and took me 20 minutes in total – a nice break on a sunny day.
We had a draft plan to boondock this night but nothing appeared so we got a spot at the Pirate’s Haven RV Park at Robinson over to the west on Hwy 404, which I had taken because of particularly good boondocking locations. Pirate’s Haven has some good reviews but my 2-star will drop it a notch – among other issues, the women’s toilet didn’t flush and the men’s had no toilet paper. Definitely a thumbs-down experience.
On June 6th, we would drive another 230 km north to Shoal Brook, one of several communities in Gros Morne National Park. We had reservations at the Waters Edge RV Park there.
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