(click here to find Cox's Cove on the map)
(click photos to enlarge)
Cox's Cove is at the Western end of Admiral Palliser's Trail or Route 440. It starts in Corner Brook as The North Shore Highway. It starts from Riverside Drive in Corner Brook, just east of the railway museum.
From Corner Brook you can take either Admiral Palliser's Trail (Route 440) or Captain Cook's Trail (Route 450) to explore the Bay of Islands. Route 440 follows the north shore and Route 450 follows the south shore. We were told that the south shore road was the nicer drive. We found out that the north shore drive was equally spectacular and we really enjoyed our visit to Cox's Cove.
The fellows at The Roost in York Harbour encouraged us to take the North Shore Highway to Cox's Cove. We were told that when we were there, we had to find Lynn's Takeout, because her fish 'n chips were the best.
You'll come down a long hill before driving into Cox's Cove. When you get down to the main intersection on the water, stay to the left and head towards the fish plant. You'll see Lynn's Takeout on your left.
The fish plant supplies feed to a local mink farm. They also ship product to Burgeo where there is a pet food operation.
We had Lynn's fish 'n chips and we were not disappointed. Lynn is a wonderful host. We got directions to the lookout and also found out about Cox's Cove falls. The lookout is just past the fish plant at the end of the road.
(click photos to enlarge)
Cox's Cove is on Middle Arm, which is a large inlet off the Bay of Islands. The lookout at the north end of main street provides spectacular views of both. There is a trail that starts from the lookout that has fallen into disrepair. We were advised not to follow it, the boardwalk was in pretty rough shape. Hopefully the town is able to fix it up in the future.
Lynn and one of her customers gave us directions to Cox's Cove falls, which is at the other end of town. They'll give you the landmarks to look for. Basically as you are driving out of the other end of town, you'll see a sign pointing down a gravel road. Follow that road until you get to the top of the hill. The road was too washed out to continue driving down to the falls, so we parked and walked the rest of the way.
As you can see from the photos and the video, it's well worth the effort to get to. There's a little wooden bridge you can cross. This lets you walk down both sides of the creek to get to the bottom of the falls. The road was pretty narrow, so we just backed out to the main road when we left.