Tablelands trail Preview

Let's get started!

Rock is all around

Strollin' down a highway

The trail you’re walking was once the road between Bonne Bay and Trout River. This section was replaced in the 1970s by the road you followed from the Discovery Centre.Have a look beside the stream for the remains of old wooden road supports.Keep your eyes peeled for other signs that this trail was once a road.

Who grows there?

To see typical plants of the Tablelands, we need to get off the old road and see what survives on peridotite.Step off the trail to the right and let’s have a look at what's growing. Listen to botanist Michael Burzynski explain why plants struggle here.Then click on the buttons at the bottom the page to identify some of the common species.

A river runs from it

When continents collide

How did this massive block of the mantle get from under the crust to on top of it?

The path of glaciers

The views from this spot reveal a landscape sculpted by glaciers. Over the past 3 million years, ice sheets have advanced and retreated many times. The last major glaciation ended about 10 thousand years ago.Gros Morne is one of the best places in eastern Canada to view glacial landscapes.

How low can you grow?

Notice the juniper shrubs near the roadside. There are two types: Common, with pointy needles, and Creeping, with small scales. Both have berries that smell like gin.In the serpentine soils away from the road gravel, these plants grow very, very slowly.

A rock out of place

Turn left off the trail and head towards the massive boulder. On your way, look for a smaller rock with a big yellow blotch (see picture). Tablelands rocks are toxic for most lichens, but this rock is covered with them (including the yellow blotch).This rock is an “erratic”, lifted from elsewhere by a glacier and dropped here as the ice melted.

Curious carnivory

Listen the audio to learn about this strange plant.Then click the button to find out who's at home in the pitcher.

Circles in the stone

Step off the trail to the left and look for patterns in the rocks. Can you see areas of gravel surrounded by larger rocks? These naturally occurring patterns are caused by frost churning, or cryoturbation, of the soil. Frost polygons are common in Arctic tundra, but not usually found this far south. Such frost heaving makes it difficult for plants to stay rooted. Yet another reason for the plants to struggle!

Limestone cement

Can you find a rocks like these? (Look off trail to the right). It may look like part of an old concrete culvert, but it’s gravel that has been naturally cemented together.Back at the start, we learned that serpentinite (the snake rock) is created by water reacting with peridotite. This reaction releases calcium, which dissolves in ground water and later precipitates as limestone. The naturally cemented gravel you see here is the result of sepentinization.

Soak it in

Travertine delight

Just ahead, near the waterfall, you can step down carefully to see unusual travertine formations. These delicate patterns are being formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate. The calicum in the springwater comes from the serpentization of peridotite.The travertine on the surface is new rock, being formed as we speak, in great contrast to the 500 million year old rocks surrounding us.

Trail's end

You can explore more of the geological stories of Gros Morne at the Discovery Centre and see more of the Tablelands by hiking the Green Gardens Trail or the Trout River Pond Trail.

An alien land

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