Newfoundland/Maritimes road trip photos -
Page 2 of 3
by Oscar Voss

This photo collection, from my August 2003 road trip to Newfoundland and the other Maritime Provinces of Canada, is divided into three pages. Page 1 covers road signs and pavement markings. The photos below cover other sights along Newfoundland highways, plus licence plates. Page 3 covers the other Maritime Provinces as well as a little bit of northern Maine.

NOTE: In case you want more detail, clicking most of the photos below will call up enlarged, higher-quality (less .jpg compression) versions. Those alternate versions have larger file sizes, so please be patient while they download.

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Page 1: Newfoundland road signs and pavement markings
Cape Spear parking lot, with lighthouses in the background
The End Of The Line (East) -- where better to start these photos, than at the easternmost road to the easternmost point in North America, Cape Spear Drive (unnumbered spur from provincial route 11) to Cape Spear National Historic Site? Above the parking lot to the left are the old lighthouse to the far right, and the visitor centre in front of the new lighthouse near the middle of this photograph.
 

The old Cape Spear lighthouse.		 Old lighthouse at Cape Spear, with red and white roof over beacon
 
Plain white new lighthouse at Cape Spear
 
The new lighthouse.

Until a few years ago, the east end of the Trans-Canada Highway was somewhere in the Signal Hill neighbourhood east of downtown St. John's. This photo of a stray old TCH marker was taken at the intersection of Signal Hill Road, Quidi Vidi Road, and Empire Avenue.		 Old Trans-Canada Highway route marker, in Signal Hill neighbourhood of St. John's
 
Mile 0 display at St. John's city hall -- 'Canada starts right here'
This display in front of City Hall in downtown St. John's marks the symbolic beginning of the Trans-Canada Highway, though as indicated above the actual east end was east of downtown.
Outer Ring Highway construction wrapping up at exit 50 The east end of the TCH was recently relocated to the new Outer Ring Highway freeway bypassing St. John's to the north. The most recent extension, as of my visit in August 2004, apparently took the TCH to the exit 50 interchange with provincial route 30 (I say "apparently" because the divided highway, and TCH signage, ended at exit 49). Finishing touches, such as pavement markings, were still being applied when I was there. 

The road will be extended further east beyond this interchange, then curl back southwest to connect to an existing road ending in the Quidi Vidi neighbourhood east of Signal Hill. However, both that road and the connecting road under construction apparently will be two-lane undivided with at-grade intersections, and my guess is that they won't be part of the TCH.
 

The Middle Cove of Tor Bay, north of St. John's, is pretty gorgeous from this viewpoint along the south side of the bay on Marine Drive, but is downright jaw-dropping when you see it as you top the hill on northbound Outer Cove Road.		 Middle Cove of Tor Bay
 
Post office in Dildo Road sign directing travelers left to Dildo village
Yes, really. The shopkeepers in this out-of-the-way little fishing village, northwest of St. John's off the Baccalieu Trail (route 80) about 15 km north of the TCH, patiently but vaguely explain that the place must have been named for some Spanish island or some Basque sea captain, rather than the "bedroom toy." (Lending some credence to that explanation is, north of Gander in another part of the province, the Dildo Run waterway branching from Virgin Arm.) But they certainly don't mind the additional tourist traffic the offbeat name brings into the village.

By the way, you can catch the access road into the village only from northbound route 80. Southbound travelers should continue to South Dildo and turn around there.
 
Northwest Arm of Trinity Bay, with Trans-Canada Highway on the left
The Northwest Arm of Trinity Bay, from a scenic view pullout on the TCH, northbound about 2 km south of Clarenville.
 
Lighthouse at Cape Bonavista
 		 At the end of the Discovery Trail (route 230) northeast of Clarenville is the lighthouse at Cape Bonavista, where English explorers first found Newfoundland in 1497.
 
Silent Witness statue, with boy and girl flanking soldier Screaming Eagles emblem of the 101st Airborne
At the Silent Witness memorial off the TCH just south of Gander, remembering those who died in 1985 (including 248 soldiers of the 101st Airborne) when their plane, returning from a Middle East peacekeeping mission, crashed soon after takeoff from Gander International Airport.
 
Standard Newfoundland/Labrador licence plate Newfoundland/Labrador licence plate variation -- 500th anniversary of Cabot landing
Four kinds of licence plates I saw in Newfoundland.
Newfoundland/Labrador licence plate variation -- A World of Difference Old standard Newfoundland/Labrador licence plate
GO ON TO PAGE 3
Page 3: other Maritimes/northern Maine road photos

or return to Page 1: Newfoundland road signs and pavement markings

Alaska Roads main page (under construction as of October 2007, but has some useful information and links).

Questions, comments? Please e-mail me.

© Oscar Voss 2003-2004, 2007. Corrected version October 14, 2004.