Trail · from Deer Lake (YDF)
The Tablelands Trail
- Mapped path
- 2 km
- One way — the two ends lie 1.81 km apart, so the way back is this path again unless you have arranged a lift.
- Climbing
- 73 m
- To the trailhead
- 1h 4m
easyderived: 2 km + 73 m of climb ≈ 2.6 effective km — the rule is stated in code, not opinion
Drive: 72.1 km from the Deer Lake (YDF) terminal door to the trailhead — not the town. OSRM driving profile, terminal door to the trailhead, checked 2026-09-03.
The trail, measured
Tablelands Trail: the mapped path is 2 km with 73 m of climbing, from 163 m up to 234 m. How long that takes is yours to know; what it climbs is not a matter of opinion.
Every cited segment →
OpenStreetMap way/500283889 + way/500283888 + way/349593018 + way/500283892; elevation from AWS Open Data Terrarium tiles (z14), sampled ~30 m, ascent over a 3 m noise threshold; measured 2026-09-03.
Today's trail conditions and seasonal closures are Parks Canada's — check before you climb →Park bulletins →
Drive it with your own nav:Organic Maps →OsmAnd →Apple →Google →Waze →The first two run on OpenStreetMap and don't track you — the same map this site is built from.
Download the GPX → works in Organic Maps, OsmAnd, Garmin and Strava alike — it's just a file, no account, nothing tracked.
No one has sent a recording of this walk yet.Be the first — send the track →
Getting here
- 1h 4m from Deer Lake — 72.1 km to the trailhead.
The measured drive is YDF → Gros Morne (Rocky Harbour) — 2 stops on it, with the road numbers, the surface and where to eat along it.
What has been recorded near here
Species reported within 50 km of Tablelands Trail trailhead and shared to GBIF, the international record of species occurrences. The useful column is when — the months the reports cluster in.
- Northern gannetseabirdMorus bassanusReports cluster in August, July, June536 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in July, June, May33 reports on record
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in August, October, December10 reports on record
- Fin whalewhaleBalaenoptera physalusReports cluster in October, July6 reports on record
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in July, October2 reports on record
What this is not
- Not how many there are. A report means somebody looked, saw and wrote it down. A busy harbour with tour boats reports more than an empty coast with the same animals in it.
- Not a sighting you are promised. Nothing here says you will see one.
- Not complete. Only species we ask GBIF about appear, and only where somebody reported them.
From GBIF, queried 2026-09-14 — their record, not a copy of it.
Eating, when you come off
Everything the open map data records within 20 minutes' drive of the trailhead, measured by road and ordered by nothing but how long it takes to reach. 1 of 10 has a position two independent maps agree on.
- The Shed20 Cox's Ln · (709) 453-72247 min · 5.9 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- The Old Loft Restaurant8 Water St · (709) 453-22947 min · 5.9 kmnavigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
- Galliott Studios and Cafe8 Water St · (709) 638-24097 min · 5.9 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- Merchant Warehouse Retro Cafe and Wine Bar16 Water St · (709) 453-24167 min · 5.9 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- The Chocolate Moose Bakery & CafeTableland Drive, Birchy Head (upstairs at Roy Young Ltd, watch for the big Moose!) · (709) 458-852912 min · 11.2 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- Seaside Restaurant263 Main St · (709) 451-346113 min · 12.4 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- Riverside Takeout Trout RiverMain Steet · (709) 451-320713 min · 12.5 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- Blue Whale Convenience & Diner93 Main St13 min · 12.8 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
No opening hours anywhere on this site, for anywhere — the open data holds none, which is an absence in the source rather than caution on our part. The telephone number is the only reliable answer to whether a kitchen is serving. Built 2026-09-14.
No photograph yet — the profile and the map are the honest visuals until someone who has walked it sends theirs.
The profile climbs and does not come back down: this is an out-and-back, 2.0 km each way along the mapped path, onto rock that has no business being on the surface at all. The Tablelands are a slab of the Earth’s mantle pushed up where two plates collided — the same collision story the Dover Fault tells on the island’s other side — and the orange, life-poor ground underfoot is why Gros Morne holds its UNESCO listing. The park’s own interpreters tell that story properly; this page’s job is the numbers: 73 measured metres of climb, a trailhead 1h04 from the YDF terminal door, and a path whose every segment is cited above.
What the plateau is on the day — wind funnelling down Trout River gulch, snow lingering into summer some years — is Parks Canada’s and the weather’s business, not a promise this page can make. The relation for this trail is maintained by Gros Morne National Park in OpenStreetMap, which is exactly the kind of stewardship more trails here could use.
There is a bigger climb here, and honesty demands both halves: from the marked trail’s far end, OpenStreetMap carries an “Off Trail Hike” line (relation 15976461) running 9.0 measured kilometres with 501 m of ascent onto the 671 m plateau. It now has its own measured page — published under a serious-undertaking advisory, because it is unmarked barrens where navigation is the skill being tested and Parks Canada’s guided walks are the honest way in. The 2.0 km below is the walk anyone can take; the plateau page states the facts and hands the judgment to you and the park.
The full drive, with stops, moose notes and road links: the Deer Lake (YDF) route this trail hangs off →
Measured September 3, 2026. Trailhead: OpenStreetMap way/500283889 — the path's start at the Route 431 parking area.