60 RIVERS & SHORES
newfoundland
EASTERN CANADA
Newfoundland’s coast welcomed the first
Europeans—the Vikings—to the New World
more than a thousand years ago. They didn’t
stay, and no wonder, for though this is a beau-
tiful place, it is also an inhospitable one, girded
by clifs, deep fjords, and wind-bufeted
headlands. Icebergs drift ofshore from April
to June, and abandoned fishing settlements
bear witness to the coast’s long human his-
tory. Visitors come for the solitude, to take in
the bracing Atlantic air, and to kayak, hike, or
watch for whales and other wildlife.
DON’T MISS
Hikers and history bufs will relish the East Coast
Trail, which runs for 165 miles (265 km) down the
island’s east coast, and the chance to visit the site
of L’Anse aux Meadows, the only confirmed Viking
settlement in North America.
The clifs of Cape St. Mary (right) and Cape Spear
(above), the most easterly point in North America