Western Brook Pond

Western Brook Pond is called a pond, which is Newfoundland understatement for a glacial trough sixteen kilometres long with walls rising six hundred metres on either side. It was carved as a fjord and then cut off from the sea when the land rebounded after the ice, so it is now entirely fresh, and it is so nearly free of dissolved minerals that the water is classed as ultra-oligotrophic and conducts electricity barely at all. Waterfalls drop the full height of the walls, one of them among the tallest in eastern North America. Reaching it means a three-kilometre walk across bog on boardwalk, and then a boat tour up the gorge and back, which is the only way to see the inner cliffs.

What you actually see

• The gorge boat tour - the only way into the inner walls of the fjord.
• The cliff walls - six hundred metres straight from the water surface.
• Pissing Mare Falls - a thin fall dropping most of the cliff height.
• The boardwalk approach - three kilometres across open bog to the jetty.

When to go

June to September is the boat season, and it is short; tours book out in July and August and are cancelled in wind, which is frequent. Mornings are usually calmest. The rest of Gros Morne, including the Tablelands and Gros Morne mountain itself, needs at least a further two days.

Honest expectations

The boat is the whole experience and it is regularly cancelled for weather, sometimes for several days running, so build slack into the trip. The walk to the jetty is three kilometres each way over exposed bog with no shelter. Tickets sell out well ahead in high summer. There is no view of the inner gorge from land.

Nearby

The Tablelands and Rocky Harbour are within the park; L'Anse aux Meadows is four hours north.