Meat Cove Beach Views

It was sunny and clear in Meat Cove, where I arrived about 16h45, as it apparently had been all day. After checking in, I drove down to the village and had dinner at the Meat Cove Welcome Centre, after which I drove down to the Meat Cove Beach for more photos; I watched the fog bank which had been off shore move inland and obscure Black Point. Meat Cove Beach is not a sand beach, but a gravel and cobblestone beach, but it is still a popular swimming spot in the summer time.

Photo #1 was taken about two-thirds of the way towards the east end of the beach. Previous beachgoers had constructed the minimalist inuksuk seen in the foreground from some of the larger cobblestones and left it basking in the sun. The point at the far left is Black Point, over which a cloud was already descending—if you look above and to the left of the point, you can see the height of the fog bank on Bay St Lawrence that, later that evening, would completely enshroud it. I always find it interesting to watch the bright sunlight dance on the strata in these dark rocks, illuminating cranny and nook as the sun moves slowly across the sky.

Photo #2, taken a bit further west along the beach, looks along the coast. The Meat Cove Campground sits on the cliff above the beach; left of centre, you can see the flag and to its left is a burst of smoke from a campfire. The peak behind and just to the right of the flag is the summit of Little Grassy, to which a trail leads with fine views of the coast below and to the east. The point furthest to the right is Blackrock Point, which marks the outer edge of Meat Cove (the water). The rocks at the right are a popular place to which to swim.

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Photo #3 shows the east end of the beach, the size of which can be gauged using the full-grown trees at the top as a guide. It seems a minor miracle that the trees on the left descending slope have enough soil to stay attached in the strong winds off the Gulf. This photo also demonstrates the height of the beach inland, which sits 1-2 metres/yards above the water, having been pushed there by the strong waves rolling in off the Gulf. This phenomenon is seen in an even more pronounced form at Gabarus and Red Cape on the Atlantic Coast, where the piles can reach as much as twice these, but this is still a pretty impressive pile.

Photo #4 is a close-up of the cliff at the east end of the beach, where the unfiltered bright sun makes the stones dance. The fog rolling in over Black Point is visible at the left. Behind the massive rock in the foreground, the coast has some other shelf beaches below the cliffs, as can be seen in this view from Little Grassy taken a year earlier. Clearly, the only way to reach those areas is by boat or by swimming, though the distance to the next one is not all that far.

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Photo #5 looks at the mouth of the Meat Cove Brook, where an incoming wave has just crashed. This photo, like the two preceding ones, also conveys the height of the4 stones above the water level on the beach. The brook mouth, at the north end of the beach, is a bit hard to make out in this photo, but flows through the break one can see where the water reaches furthest to the left, dividing the beach into two parts, one small portion right below the cliffs below the campground and the other encompassing the rest of the beach. As the other photos on this page attest, this was not a particularly rough day on the water, but some waves do splash with considerable force. Watching them and listening to their music is one of my favourite pastimes.

Photo #6 looks offshore at Blackrock Point at the right and the slope of Little Grassy rising behind it; the point in the foreground is part of the cliffs below the campground. In the sun of the beautiful afternoon, I did not notice it at the time, but the fog, which was to smother the mountains above Meat Cove and the village below in a cloud of misty moisture, was already not far beyond the distant rocks at the far right; indeed, the fog can already be seen just crossing the slopes of Little Grassy at the upper left,