Mistaken Point

Along with Red Bay in Labrador, Mistaken Point is the hardest-to-reach World Heritage Site of the 10 in Eastern Canada. Located in the far southeastern corner of the island of Newfoundland, it can only be visited with a prearranged tour. I reserved 4 weeks in advance by e-mail and was given a choice between two time slots on my preferred day. Fortunately, the tours rarely get cancelled ("about 5 times a year") as bad weather does not deter the Newfoundlanders, they are only called off when the waves are so high that they cover the fossils or it gets dangerous. The day before the visit, I drove from Deer Lake in the West to St. John's, the largest city in the East (which takes 6.5 hours). Then it's a further 2 hours to the South via the “Irish Loop”, a coastal road across the Avalon Peninsula past many villages of Irish origin.

12 people showed up for the 10.30 a.m. tour, all Canadians except me. We were then invited to follow our guides by car in convoy towards the starting point of the trail towards the fossils. Do they do it this way to discourage illegal entry? The entrance (just a rope across a path) and parking lot aren’t exactly hidden, but they don’t advertise it either. You could find the exact location on Google Maps of course but it is not signposted from the road. Also, when we parked our cars, we had to put a sign with …

So with this one I had finally "ticked off" all sites in NF but each one was great. I specifically say NF because the site in Labrador sucks. Mistaken Point, named after the many ships that turned too early and wrecked here, is a fossil site. Unlike many fossil sites there is more to see than fossils. The nature at the tip of the Irish route is beautiful, you see many flora, in summer there were thousands of whales at the shore that come right into the bay, there is a seal that comes to visit tourists at the fossil area (I forget its name, Barry?), and this is overall a wonderful day out. It will take an entire day and you must prebook although an Indian fellow had only inquired a night before to join us, there were only two groups of ~12 in total. You also need to check in with them at noon before leaving an hour later, then you return at 4pm. So you cannot really add any special sightseeing to this day's itinerary (but they have whales!). Furthermore, you must have your own car, really, I mean you could theoretically take whatever transportation to get to their office and then get a ride to the parking lot inside the reserve but it just doesn't make sense.

Unlike all other sites (in NFL or even in all of Canada) this is not run by Parks Canada. Their office still has a nice introduction to the …

We visited Mistaken point on Canada Day 2018 and was greated with cake at the visitor center. It was rainy and cold, not the best for a hike out to the fossil site.

The visitor center is on the highway at Portugal Cove South, outside the sites boundary. It is about 2 h by car from St. John and you will need a car to get to there. You also need to join a tour to get into the core zone. We had pre-booked a tour on the website at 13:00, the only one that day. Quite a steep price, 24 CAD per person. The visitor center was small and kind of boring. No cafes or store around either, so bring some food and drinks because the tour took about 2-3 hours.

First there is 10 km drive to a parking lot followed by a 3 km hike through the marshland. Some places were really wet, so hiking boots are recommended. The rain and wind really made it a cold walk, but as a miracle it stopped raining when we got to the core zone 😊. The site is by the ocean and sometimes whales can be seen although we didn’t.

At the actual site we had to take off our shoes and put on some soft slippers before we could walk out on the fossil site. On our tour in Canada we visited all the fossil sites, and this was clearly the most interesting one.

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The name alone conjures up shipwrecks and those who ventured where they should not have. This is a challenging site, and weather conditions should be taken into account. While it is only 70 kilometres from St. John’s, it feels a world apart, and the road had surprisingly little traffic. However, in July there was a waiting list to do the tour, which is the only way you can see the fossil area. You need to book a few weeks ahead, and checking the forecast is a good idea too. The tour does not go ahead in very wet, foggy or windy weather, so call before you proceed. The landscape is stunning, with open fields and wide vistas, as well as having sections with wildflowers and stunted forests created by the strong winds. We were lucky to draw a dry day, and the 3 km walk each way is mainly difficult near the end where you have to ford a river by stepping on rocks. These can be slippery when wet, and sometimes the water may be too deep to see the actual stepping stones.  

  Once near the fossil area, you need to put on felt booties, which protect the delicate rock faces but aren’t great for grip near a steep cliff edge and raging seas below. The fossils themselves are interesting and are of sea life from ancient times and fairly eroded, so the guide is quite useful. Our tour consisted of mainly older people and one rambunctious child, …

I visited Mistaken Point in October 2016.

Mistaken Point is home to the oldest multicellular fossils on Earth. They are found in a thin layer of rock which is right on the Atlantic Coast.

While the site can be visited on a day trip out of St. John's, there are several things you should know before you go, as they could ruin your trip.

The most important thing to know is that you can only access the fossils on a group tour which starts at the Mistaken Point visitor center.

Also, only a small part of the Mistake Point Ecological Reserve is part of the world heritage site.

Read more about Mistaken Point on my website.

It is surprising that the site remains without signage. I wish I could put some interpretative sign boards there. I remember every bit of the area even after 40 years of my long association with the fossils and rocks of the region.I am in the possession of fossil bearing original rocks and casts of fossis. My Masters thesis submitted to Memorial University details the terrain how it was like in 1967-69.

I came across this site almost by accident. After a long hike with a friend through some medium difficult terrain and fording a small stream we came across these breathtaking rocks, full of fossils. Quite unprotected from the weather and no interpretative signage. This place desperately needs preservation and also protection as we could have walked on top of these precious remnants of human beginnings. We were the only two there but subsequently ran into the local archaeologist who filled us in on what we'd seen.