Western Brook Pond
Interesting facts
- The water is so slowly renewed that it takes about 15.4 years for the lake's entire volume to be flushed through.
- Beyond its 165-metre maximum, the lake averages about 72.5 metres deep, covers some 23 square kilometres and has a shoreline of about 42.5 kilometres.
- Its 171-square-kilometre catchment is mostly hard igneous rock under thin soil, which is why so few nutrients reach the water.
- The cliffs expose Precambrian gneiss and granite of the Long Range Inlier, rock that is locally well over a billion years old.
- Stag Brook feeds the lake at its inland end, and Western Brook carries the outflow across the coastal plain to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- The pond lies within Gros Morne National Park, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 largely for its geology.
Why it is worth it
Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park, on the west coast of Newfoundland, is a fjord that lost its sea. Glaciers of the ice ages gouged a deep trough through the Long Range Mountains, the northernmost stretch of the Appalachians. When the ice melted and the weight came off, the land slowly rose, the mouth of the fjord was lifted above sea level, and the salt water was gradually flushed out by rain and streams. What remains is a freshwater lake about 16 km long and up to 165 metres deep, closed in by near-vertical rock walls around 600 metres high.
The scale is what stays with people. From the low coastal plain the lake runs straight into the plateau, and as a boat moves up it the walls close in until the upper reach becomes a narrow gorge with bare cliffs on both sides. Waterfalls drop over the rim from the plateau above; the tallest, Pissing Mare Falls, falls about 350 metres and is among the highest in eastern North America. The cliffs are not entirely still: early in the twentieth century a rockfall into the pond set off a wave estimated at 30 metres.
The water itself is remarkable. Western Brook Pond is ultra-oligotrophic, meaning so poor in nutrients that almost nothing grows in it, and the result is exceptionally clear, clean water that has seen very little human influence. On calm days the dark surface mirrors the rock walls almost perfectly.
The only way to see the inner fjord for most visitors is by boat. Tour boats run from June to mid-October from a dock at the lake's western end, cruising along the base of the cliffs to the head of the fjord and back. The dock itself is reached by a walk of about 3 km over coastal bog and low limestone ridges on a gravel and boardwalk trail.
Getting there
The trailhead and parking lie on Route 430, about 27 km north of the village of Rocky Harbour. The nearest larger town is Corner Brook, about 88 km away, and the nearest airport is Deer Lake Airport (YDF), about 64 km away. From the parking lot, a walk of about 3 km leads to the boat dock.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Gros Morne National Park 5.3 km · national-park
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Western Brook Pond is a Canadian fjord or lake located in Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. It is in the Long Range Mountains, the most northern section of the Appalachian Mountains.
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