Trail · from Deer Lake (YDF)
Tablelands Off-Trail: the plateau traverse, measured
Serious undertaking
This is not the family walk below it. The route crosses unmarked serpentine barrens where navigation is the skill being tested: no blazes, no boardwalk, weather that closes in on a plateau with few handrails, and a descent to a different road-end than you started from. Parks Canada runs guided off-trail walks on this very ground and their Discovery Centre is where this day should start; file a trip plan either way. The numbers on this page say what the land measures — they do not say go.
Parks Canada — Gros Morne guided experiences and Discovery Centre →
- Mapped path
- 9 km
- One way — the two ends lie 1.22 km apart, so the way back is this path again unless you have arranged a lift.
- Climbing
- 501 m
- To the trailhead
- 1h 4m
challengingderived: 9 km + 501 m of climb ≈ 13 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 Tablelands Trail parking on Route 431, checked 2026-09-03 — then 2.0 km on foot up the marked trail to where this line begins.
The trail, measured
Tablelands Off-Trail (plateau): the mapped path is 9 km with 501 m of climbing, from 191 m up to 671 m. Walked back the other way, the same path climbs 541 m — downhill out is uphill home. How long that takes is yours to know; what it climbs is not a matter of opinion.
Every cited segment →
OpenStreetMap way/449547372 + way/449547373; elevation from AWS Open Data Terrarium tiles (z14), sampled ~30 m, ascent over a 3 m noise threshold.
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 start.
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 far end — where the marked path stops 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, June515 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in July, June, May33 reports on record
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in August, December, January9 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) 453-72245 min · 4.4 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- The Old Loft Restaurant8 Water St · (709) 453-22945 min · 4.5 kmnavigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
- Galliott Studios and Cafe8 Water St · (709) 638-24095 min · 4.5 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- Merchant Warehouse Retro Cafe and Wine Bar16 Water St · (709) 453-24165 min · 4.5 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- The Chocolate Moose Bakery & CafeTableland Drive, Birchy Head (upstairs at Roy Young Ltd, watch for the big Moose!) · (709) 458-852910 min · 9.8 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- Blue Whale Convenience & Diner93 Main St13 min · 13.7 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- Knead Pizza?101 Main St · (709) 451-210113 min · 13.7 kmunconfirmed — go by the address
- Seaside Restaurant263 Main St · (709) 451-346113 min · 13.3 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 mapped Tablelands Trail below this page is 2.0 km of boardwalk and gravel anyone can walk. This page is the other thing: the “Off Trail Hike” line OpenStreetMap carries beyond the marked path’s end — relation 15976461, drawn by someone who walked it — running 9.0 measured kilometres up onto the plateau proper and down the far side.
Read the profile before anything else, because it tells the whole story: a steady 430-metre climb off the marked trail’s end to the 670-metre plateau, four kilometres of near-level barrens across the top, then a long 480-metre descent to a different point on the marked trail than the one you left it at. It is a traverse of the plateau, but not a shuttle problem: the mapped line ends back on the marked Tablelands Trail 0.7 km above the parking, so the day is a loop from the car — 2.0 km up the boardwalk to where this line begins, 9.0 km over the top, 0.7 km of the same boardwalk back down. Both ends are on the Route 431 side; the Bonne Bay water shuttle has nothing to do with this walk. (The marked trail is OpenStreetMap ways 349593018, 500283888, 500283889 and 500283892, stitched and measured 2026-09-06: 2.0 km from the parking to the off-trail start, 0.7 km from the parking to where the line rejoins it.)
The advisory above is not decoration; it is the page’s honest half. The Tablelands are serpentine rock where almost nothing grows and nothing marks the way. In cloud — common on a 670-metre plateau ten kilometres from salt water — the barrens offer no edges to navigate by. Parks Canada guides walk this ground for a living; their lead, or skills equal to theirs, is the entry fee. The measured numbers here are the land’s facts. The judgment call is, and stays, yours and the park’s.
The full drive, with stops, moose notes and road links: the Deer Lake (YDF) route this trail hangs off →
Measured September 6, 2026. Trailhead: OpenStreetMap relation/15976461 — the off-trail line's start at the marked trail's end.