(click here to find location on the map)
(click photos to enlarge, click caption for mapped location)
Cape Onion is a far north as you can go on the island of Newfoundland. The former bustling fishing community is now home to only 3 houses. One of the houses is a heritage structure that has been converted to a bed & breakfast. The Tickle Inn is an incredible B&B in a breath-taking location.
We've recently received an email from the Tickle Inn advising us that they were retiring and no longer taking guests. They are now selling a cookbook, ordering instructions are on their website.
The trail runs in front of the property, so you can still drive down to the end of the road and see the incredible views. From the front yard of the Inn, you look out onto the North Atlantic and see several lichen covered rocky islands. The bay is very shallow and at low tide its' rocky bottom is almost completely exposed.
To get to Cape Onion, take Highway 437 to the end. You'll come into the larger community of Ship Cove, NL. There's a road marked for Cape Onion, you turn left onto it, break over a hill and you'll see a spectacular view. The Tickle Inn is at the bottom of the hill on the left.
Our host for our stay in Cape Onion was Sophie. The Tickle Inn also offers guests supper (dinner is lunch in Newfoundland). Sophie is a great guide for activities in the area and a great cook! They can also sell you a bottle of wine if you'd like to sit on the front lawn and just enjoy the view.
Treena's Trail is a 7km loop that goes through Ship Cove and in front of Tickle Inn. You can pick it up at the Inn. Follow it to the west and you climb quite a big hill. When you get to the top, you can look across the Strait of Belle Isle and see the Labrador coast.
We saw more moose near Cape Onion, than any other location on the island. The three pictured below were on the side of Highway 437 between Raleigh and Ship Cove. You need to be very cautious driving in the evening. They are hard to see and more likely to be out on the road. Cape Onion is a good location to stay for visiting Burnt Cape, St. Anthony and L'Anse aux Meadows. Weather in this area can vary greatly. It can be clear and sunny in Cape Onion and completely fogged in at St. Anthony.
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.ca and Canadian customers can purchase it through this link.
The Bobs's Newfoundland map below was prepared using Google MyMaps. You can zoom in by pressing the + button on the lower left. Click on any of the icons for photos and a link to more information about each site.
We've purchased most of these books ourselves. It's nice to have field guides so you can identify what you are seeing when you are out on a hike. Please help support Bob's Newfoundland by using the links below for book purchases. We've written book reviews for the following:
Newfoundland books available from Amazon.ca (Canada)
Newfoundland books available from Amazon.com (USA)
