Newfoundland Baccalieu Route provides Flight and Sights

The Baccalieu Route explores one of the four dominant peninsulas on the Avalon Peninsula via Highway 70 (scenic route) and Highway 75 (highway route). Along the route you visit with many small villages – some located at the end of dead end streets, some at the end of long spits and some sunken into ocean coves.

EH Tourism at the Shoe Hole in Bay Roberts

The Baccalieu Route is heavily laden with bays, points and heads. The island geography explores the shores of Conception Bay on the eastern coastline and on the western coastline the villages spy down on Trinity Bay. Both of the Atlantic Ocean family.

Off shore there are cliffs, islands and beaches. Many of the higher elevation homes and buildings cling to cliffs and stand on stilts. Some villages sink into coves surrounding marinas and protected by wave barriers designed to block oncoming storms.

The highlight for us of all the small villages we visited was the Village of Bay de Verde located on the tip of the peninsula. It was so cute I wanted to hug the village. LOL. The village huddles around a quiet cove. High cliffs surround the cove like two giant pinchers of a lobster. The village homes are scattered and staggered up on a hillside. Some homes were dressed in their Sunday best pastels while others were in need of some paint-brush luvin.

Lookout in Bay de Verde

Bay de Verde was a blessing in disguise. In the village was the Blundon Historic House and lookouts. Attached to the home was a boardwalk trail leading to lookouts overlooking the village and bay.

The boardwalk lookout crawls the cliffs leading down to a marina, a fish shack and drying rack and up a hillside leading to a hidden spring. It is a very well maintained site with picnic and sightseeing benches and… on occasion… locals gather here for a good gossip session.

The main villages located along the Baccalieu Route with the most services include Bay Roberts, Harbour Grace and Carbonear, Newfoundland, Canada.

The community of Bay Roberts exceeded our expectations in many ways. First and foremost, Bay Roberts surprised us with an exceptional 7.8 kilometre cliff side heritage trail exploring the point of Bay of Roberts. Carbonear was more of a commercial stop with shopping, services and a heritage village district. Harbour Grace was home to the airstrip used in Amelia Earhart’s historic trans Atlantic flight.

Sometimes, the tourism information books undermined some destination attractions with lack lustre representation and at other times they over hype some attraction destinations. In some instances they do not even recognize certain natural attractions. It can make a tourist go crazy.

Canada is known internationally as one of the last destinations on earth for wilderness landscapes and free roaming wildlife. Yet… far too many communities try to attract tourists with museums, science centres and amusement parks. How many people do you know who spend thousands of dollars to travel to a community to view a museum? Museums will not make your community a travel destination. However a good tour or sightseeing opportunity to view Canada’s landscape and wildlife will attract tourists to your community in a heartbeat.

EH Tourism on the Heritage Trail

In Bay Roberts we did not expect much based on our intel. However… like any adventure there are surprises and Bay Roberts delivered a big surprise. In the village we stumbled onto a great sightseeing trail which was underplayed in the regional tourism information.

It turns out the 7.8 kilometre Heritage Trail exploring the point in Bay Roberts was comparable to some of the trails we explored in Twillingate and on the North Peninsula. The trail explores high cliffs, headlands and coves. There is an old historic cemetery and a family of root cellars. Along the trail are private picnic areas overlooking cliffs. Everything structural on the trail is painted in fire truck red. It is not only a well maintained sightseeing trail but it is cosmetically appealing.

The single track Heritage Trail is very well signed. The trail is considered an easy going route with some hill sections. There are red outhouses located along the route.

The route provided us with some excellent views of jagged cliffs. Not just one cliff but several. It was as if every corner we took led us to another side trail leading to a cliff edge and some amazing views. Some of the highlight geography to explore on the trail includes French’s Cove Head, Juggler’s Cove, Bull Cliffs, Scogglin’s Head, Shoe Hole, Dark Hole, Mouse Hole, Franny’s Gulch and Mad Rock Cove. The views will impress for sure!

EH Tourism Taking Flight at Amelia Earhart Airstrip

Harbour Grace is a whole ‘nother story of lack lustre promotions. Her name is Amelia Earhart. You would think an internationally recognized event like the first women to cross the Atlantic Ocean would garner some great ideas like naming streets with aviation themes and run an aviation theme in the village and on and on we can go. This is not the case. When entering the community on Highway #70 there was a statue of the famous aviator… and… and… that is it.

We did find out that on one of the backcountry roads was the original airstrip used by the aviation pioneer. We thought… this is going to be cool… we can walk the in the same steps as Amelia Earhart. It was said to be a National Historic Site too. It has to be great!

We figured the site would of been dressed up nice like other Historic Sites… we were so wrong. The signage to the airstrip was mickey mouse painted signs. The entrance to the airstrip was a wire fence beside a horse field fronted by another poor quality sign. There was no glory in the representation of such an important landmark… it looked more like an afterthought attraction. A missed opportunity in our minds.

Lucky for us we understood her accomplishments and looked past the poor representation and appreciated it for what it was. Both, Bro and I , walked the airstrip and ran the strip with our arms spread out like wings of plane taking flight. We were in the moment. Amelia Earhart would of been proud. We do hope some day Amelia Earhart receives the recognition and respect she deserves in Harbour Grace. A little effort would go a long way.