campground reservations necessary in Newfoundland?

[soos]

hi,
we just booked the ferry over to NL for July 23 for a few weeks. Around the campfire last night we were talking to an ex-NL inhabitant who spent 3 weeks there last summer and he said we'd better make reservations for all the campgrounds we want to stay at, since they will most likely be full. Is that so?? Anyone got their experience to share? I hate to have to sit down and plan out my whole trip there. we did book campgrounds for the nights before and after the ferry trip, on both ends, so we won't have to worry about that.
What do you think?

Also, towing a 39ft 5th wheel, we understand that if we go to St. John's, which is our plan, we'll have to pretty much take the same route back, as there is no "loop". Is that true?
thanks!

Sue

[soos]

We just got back from St. Anthony. Didn't take the rig, but we easily could have. roads were fine, its just a long drive. Not many restaurants, or bathrooms along the way. kind of wish we HAD taken the rig.

[relaxin]

I didn't think there was that many people left in NL, thought they all moved to alberta, I would have guessed the parks would be less than half full

🙂 😉

[Little_Kopit]

Re. roads in and around Gros Morne, hundreds of large rigs drive those roads every year.

Granted there was one night after 10 pm, after having blow out tire changed, when it took me an hour longer to drive from Cow Head to Deer Lake than I normally did it.

Ya sees, this here moose came up out of the ditch just south of Cow Head and turned away from me, and made the adrenalin have me saying "by the Lord Thundering Jesus"*. That slowed me down some, that did.

* Newfoundland expression.

Drive in daylight is all.

:C

[mamcall]

tarnold wrote:
We did the entire west coast, bottom to top, and back down last week. no problem getting a site. Extreme north around the meadows, camps are scarce. Nice fenced camp at the ferry over to Labrador. Watch your gas, some stations are 100k apart up north.

We are planning on going to Gros Morne and then up to St Anthony. I am concerned about high grades and winding roads in our 35' Class A motorhome with the toad. How bad is it???

[robert_herr]

Actualy I have also invested in a small RV park also and see it every week plus I also RV for 6 months a year.The National park also relies on the revenue generated by camping fees to make improvements and Like you said if I don't put out slides or chairs out or BBQ I'am not camping!!! but you snuck around and said we pulled in before it was dark and now you say we only slept for 6 hours so I doubt it if you started sight seeing at 4am.
Gros Morne wardens are on the look out for people and giving out court appearance tickets which would be probably 2-3 months after the ticket is written.The saving of 25.00-30.00 a night which is probably the lowest price for camping any where, now go hire a lawyer to represent you or return to Newfoundland and fight the charge and that small saving is now a $1,000 + bill.
Newfoundlanders do camp in gravel pits or on family land all over the province but when it comes to Tera nova or Gros morne most have learned the hard way.
Just because land is not posted with a owners name doesn't mean that some one some where doesn't own it.

[Little_Kopit]

Buddywasisname and the other fellers are internationally known comedy music trio. They wrote this song to display fact and culture lots of years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9OommJlrPY

& during my 24.5 years of residency I can remember lots of times when I stayed in a campground while Newfoundlanders were set up not far outside of that cg.

Never mind the communities that got set up with permits from the government for summer camping.

:C

[dcason]

Woah, Jack. Excuse me but I a saw a LOT of Newfoundlanders camping all over the place in places where I would never think it was allowed.
Some like it was dropped for the season; some truly camping (slides, campfires/awnings out and this was on the roadside of a minor road...). These were not privately owned spots. We have no slides, no chairs out, no awning out just a brief spot to sleep in. AND, no whine because if I saw the sign and made the decision to spend 6 hours there, then I deserve it. I was not recommending that anyone else sleep in a no camping zone. We are fully self contained and don't whiz anywhere but in the toilet. Nope, wouldn't dump for free but only at the next campground we paid for.

You do what you have to do to make yourself happy.

Oh, wait, you have a B&B now everything makes sense.

[robert_herr]

You should be ok to move around with out reservations except in St johns area.

""If it isn't posted no camping, use it well!
Trout River in gros Morne had a nice little picnic info area that said, NO Camping. We weren't camping just stopping to get some shut eye. We stayed at trout pond until maybe 10 pm (still wasn't dark yet but we gave up waiting for dark) and moved over to the picnic area""


I still cant believe that people like Dcason feels it ok to camp in a picnic area that's marked no Camping or if we don't have sign every 20 ft on a highway or in a park he thinks ok to camp in Newfoundland.
Do we come to New York and set up our camper in your town's park??? or maybe park in front of your home and put out our slides??? to spend the night.It's to bad the wardens didn't do what they are supposed to be doing this year which is charging the boondockers with a mandatory court appearance, but I am sure if you where charged we would be hearing the whine on here.
These so called RVer's are the ones who stop by a campsite begging to dump for free or give us a free shower!!! if they havent whizzed out side their camper in the picnic area, Next time pay the $25.00 because when I see you parked in Gros Morne in a picnic area or rest area or on the side of the road I have the wardens on speed dial.

[dcason]

We just came back (we went for the cool weather).

If you don't mind boondocking, you should be able to find spots along your way. We were in a 25 foot class c but we paid for campsites only 11 nights out of 40. We used those visitors centers on the TCH or the small regional ones (which were closed when we were there) but if you tuck in after they close or just before the moose hour you should be okay. On beaches, interpretive panels by the side of the road, picnic areas by side of the road. We didn't camp and most all of the places we overnighted didn't have signs (one or two might have). Any spot to just tide us over to travel time again in a.m.

If it isn't posted no camping, use it well!

Trout River in gros Morne had a nice little picnic info area that said, NO Camping. We weren't camping just stopping to get some shut eye. We stayed at trout pond until maybe 10 pm (still wasn't dark yet but we gave up waiting for dark) and moved over to the picnic area
at that time...waited 1/2 hour to see if anyone would bother us. They did not and it was quiet enough. The campground at trout river was VERY buggy and the road wasn't wide and there were low branches in some parts so we felt we didn't need to pay $25 for nothing.

Donna
our blog: www.roadsidechronicles.blogspot.com

[wilber1]

Re generators at Gross Morne. I don't remember what the generator hours were in the NP but we used ours at Berry Hill.

[NCWriter]

We took the short ferry both ways. Next time we might do the long one overnight and have a cabin for fun, but the price is much higher that route.

The ferry operation is very well organized, and they will email you if there's a delay on your reserved departure.

One tip since you do have turn off the propane on the ferry. Freeze ahead some baggies full of ice cubes (or blue plastic packs) and put them below. Kept everything in there cold.

We didn't bother reserving a seat or cabin on the short ferry, didn't miss it. Bring anything you need like meds because you can't return to the vehicle deck. There are TVs in the seating area. Food was reasonable and good in the restaurants. You can go outside for fresh air and the view leaving and arriving.

You can pick up a little wifi on the ferry, not great.

[soos]

Thanks everyone, just the info I was looking for.
We are debating taking the ferry back from Argentia, but i am not sure I want to leave the cat in the trailer that long, plus our refrigerator will be full and I understand we have to shut off the propane. We had thought that, as mentioned, we will just stop at different places on the way back.
We have a generator so dry camping isn't a problem. I thought it was frowned upon now,or is that only at Gros Morne?

thanks,

Sue

[Chuck_Gail]

We were there for a month a few years ago. Never made reservations. Had no problems.

[tarnold]

We did the entire west coast, bottom to top, and back down last week. no problem getting a site. Extreme north around the meadows, camps are scarce. Nice fenced camp at the ferry over to Labrador. Watch your gas, some stations are 100k apart up north.