Today
we drove from Gros Morne all the way up the Northwest peninsula, breaking it up
with two stops along the way. Fortunately the parking lots had enough room to
accommodate a car with a trailer.
Arches Provincial Park
We
first stopped at Arches
Provincial Park
– a park that preserves some natural arches. We walked around and took some
pictures.
Port
aux Choix
Our
second stop was Port aux Choix National Historic Park, which preserves an
archaeological site with evidence from four ancient cultures: the Maritime
Archaic people (3000+ years ago), the Grosswater & Dorset people (1000-3000
years ago), and the ancestors of what we now consider the First Nations people.
We started in the visitor center where exhibits piece together the history and
show some examples of artifacts found. It didn’t take long to read through all
the exhibits.
A
several kilometer hike or short drive brings you to the actual archeological
sites. We drove down to the end of the peninsula with its lighthouse and
evidence of a Dorset
Village.
All
that remains of the Dorset village are some
depressions in the ground, but signs explain the history and wire sculptures help one imagine the scene.
Being
a Canadian National Park we found some red chairs.
Probably
the most fun part about stopping here was seeing a pair of caribou. They practically
walked right up to us.
Then
we drove to another part of the park where we hiked to Philip’s Garden along
the Dorset Trail. Wire sculptures tried to help the visitor visualize the
seal-fishing culture of the past since the only other evidence was slight
depressions in the ground.
