(click title to find location on the map)
The Blanche Brook Trail is located right on the edge of Stephenville on Highway 460 (the bypass), also named Hansen Memorial Highway. There's a parking area on the north-west side of the road, between the brook and an ATV dealer. The trail starts by running behind the ATV dealer's property line. There's a couple of spots where you feel like you are in somebody's back yard. Part of the trail cuts through the forest beside the brook.
It's an easy 1 km hike along the brook to where you'll find the petrified forest fossils. The roughest part of the path is at the very beginning. You'll see the petrified log damming the brook (photograph below). Upstream from that, if you scramble out onto the rocks, you'll see lots of wood fossils. Don't take samples and leave everything the way you found it for the next hiker.
(click photos to enlarge, click caption for mapped location)
Hikes of Western Newfoundland by Katie Broadhurst and Alexandra Fortin is an excellent guide if you like to do trails. The book covers Western and Central Newfoundland as far east as Twillingate. They don't cover every trail, that's almost impossible. You'll find information on a good range of trails that you should consider.
You start with the area map where they show the trails that are covered by the book. The pages about each trail include GPS co-ordinates of the trailhead and a good map of the trail. They also tell you the level of difficulty and distances.
We bought a copy ahead of our June 2015 trip to scout out the trails we wanted to do ahead of time. The book is available on Amazon and you can purchase it through this link.
While walking trails we often find ourselves wondering how the various interesting formations came about. Our understanding of geology is pretty limited. We purchased a great book titled 'Geology of Newfoundland' by Martha Hickman Hild.
The book has GPS co-ordinates, photos and descriptions of 48 sites across the island. The level of information will satisfy serious rock hounds. In our case, we are able to glean enough to satisfy our curiosity. We keep the book in the truck, it does not matter what part of the island you are visiting, there will be an interesting site nearby.
We bought a copy ahead of our September 2015 trip to scout out sites we wanted to explore. The book is available on Amazon and you can purchase it through this link.
Before you head to Newfoundland, you may want to consider one or more of the great field guides that are available. We have done short reviews of the following:
