A Tale of Two Lighthouses

Hi Blog!

We are really enjoying our stay here in St. John's. Located on the Avalon Peninsula, the area has more to offer than we will have time to explore. We decided to take it easy this morning and set a less ambitious schedule. Our campground, Pippy Park, is located right in the middle of St. John's, but the wooded park makes you feel like you are out in the woods. On Sunday, July 8, 2018, we started our day with a campground coffee walk.  Baxter discovered a wetland with a boardwalk, and he really didn't want to quit exploring, but we needed to get breakfast.

After breakfast, we drove over to Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site. Cape Spear is the easternmost point in North America. It is situated just south of the entrance to St. John’s Harbor and was a natural place to construct Newfoundland’s first coastal lighthouse.

Built in 1835 by the Colony of Newfoundland to signal the approach to St. John's Harbor, Cape Spear Lighthouse was in continuous operation from 1836 to 1955. The building evolved over the years, but when the property was developed by Parks Canada in 1975 as an historic site, it was restored to its 1835-1840 appearance.  Cape Spear National Historic Park was officially opened by Prince Charles and Princess Diana on June 24, 1983. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed for repairs when we visited, so we had to take in the view from the Red Chairs.

Just a couple of years after Newfoundland became the newest Canadian province in 1949, two new dwellings were built for the keepers, followed in 1955 by a new concrete, octagonal tower. The Fresnel lens was transferred from the 1835 lighthouse to the new tower, where today it still produces a light with a signature of three white flashes every fifteen seconds.

Being so close to St. John's and it being a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the cape was crawling with tourists. That didn't stop us from enjoying our Red Chairs!

Just in case you were wondering, Dingle, Ireland is directly across from the lighthouse and is the closest point in Europe to where we are.

Selfie time!

Most people who visit the Cape Spear Lighthouse do not realize the importance of Cape Spear during World War II. Cape Spear's close proximity to convoy supply routes and the entrance to St. John's Harbor made it an essential place to build a coastal defense battery. Today, you can walk through the tunnels.

Two large concrete gun batteries were built into the hillside. There were many large rooms used for ammunition storage and living areas. The gun batteries were manned by Canadian troops, while the U.S. troops operated anti-aircraft search lights and a radar station.

The darker side of collecting red chairs! Most of the time if we find the Red Chairs occupied, we ask the current occupants if they wouldn't mind sharing so we can get our photo. Most folks are great about it. Many have even offered to take our photo. Not this time.  This lady was out cold and her husband was quite content to just sit and read his book and ignore us. To pay them back, this photo will be spread across the internet with the hashtag - #redchairhogs!

From the easternmost point in North America, we looked back up toward the two lighthouses. We've actually been to the westernmost point in Canada in Kluane National Park. This summer, we hope to get to the southernmost point in Canada. The jury is still out if we will make it to the northernmost point in Canada, since there are no roads up that far.

After hiking around Cape Spear, we decided to drive up to the northernmost point of the Avalon Peninsula. Along they way, we stopped to have our picnic lunch on Middle Cove Beach. The parking lot was packed with Sunday picnickers. There wasn't much swimming going on. The favorite pastime of the kids seemed to be throwing rocks into the water. No sand castles here. We are definitely not in New Jersey anymore!

After lunch, we continued to work our way north. The last few miles of our drive out to Cape St. Francis was on a gravel road. When we finally got the lighthouse, it was closed! We saw a young couple climb around the barbed wire, but decided we are too old and not nimble enough to risk it, so we decided to hike around the cape.

Cape St. Francis defines the southern entrance to Conception Bay. A section of the East Coast Trail ends just before the lighthouse. If we had more time, we would have loved to hike some of the 300 kilometers of developed trails. The paths of the East Coast Trail take you past towering cliffs and headlands, sea stacks, deep fjords, and a natural wave-driven geyser called the Spout. You get to experience abandoned settlements, lighthouses, ecological reserves, seabird colonies, whales, icebergs, the world's southernmost caribou herd, historic sites, a suspension bridge, two active archaeological dig sites, and many more attractions. The East Coast Trail is definitely on the list for next time!

After looking down on the lighthouse complex, we found a path that led around the fence, so we took the opportunity to explore the lighthouse. In 1957, the original Cape St. Francis Lighthouse was replaced with a two-story keepers’ duplex with an adjoining concrete structure that contained the fog signal equipment and was topped by a lantern. The last resident keeper left Cape St. Francis in 1975. The duplex was demolished in 1993, an automated light was installed and a helicopter landing pad was put in place of the keepers residence to make accessing the remote station a bit easier. It definitely would have been easier to come by helicopter!

On the way back out from the point, we made a quick stop in Biscayan Cove. In the view below, we are looking down on Pigeon Island.

Biscayan Cove was once a busy fishing outport. As we hiked down to the jetty, we saw old winches, a few shacks and lots of old foundations. The buildings in the cove were mostly abandoned. Today, only a few houses remain along the gravel road out to the lighthouse and the cove. Below, Kathy sits and thinks about what it might have looked like back when cod was king.

On the way back to St. John's, we stopped at one of the downtown pubs, Shamrock City, for some moose burgers. We have one more day in St. John's before we work our way back across Newfoundland. Stay tuned.