Corner Brook
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Corner Brook

Corner Brook

Industrial Newfoundland city on the Bay of Islands, backed by Long Range Mountains and Cook-surveyed waters

Corner Brook is the second-largest city in Newfoundland, set at the head of the Bay of Islands on the island's west coast. It is an industrial town — a pulp and paper mill still dominates the waterfront — but it sits in genuinely spectacular country where the Long Range Mountains drop toward the sea.

The Captain James Cook Monument on Crow Hill marks where Cook surveyed these waters in the 1760s, and the views over the Bay of Islands from here are excellent. The Corner Brook Museum and Archives and the Railway Society of Newfoundland's historic train site are both worth a look if you are passing through. Most visitors use the city as a gateway or overnight stop on the way to Gros Morne National Park, about an hour north — one of Canada's finest national parks, with fjords, tablelands, and serious hiking.

Guide

Day Trips

Corner Brook's main day trip is Gros Morne National Park, about 70km north on the Viking Trail. Allow a full day minimum — the park is large and the sights are spread out. The Tablelands, a plateau of exposed mantle rock that looks like nothing else in Atlantic Canada, are on the south side of the park. The fjord at Western Brook Pond, reached by a boat tour after a 3km walk in, is one of the finest landscapes in eastern North America. Gros Morne Mountain itself is a serious hike, around 16km return with a steep rocky scramble, but the summit views justify the effort.

L'Anse aux Meadows, the Norse settlement at the northern tip of the island, is a full day's drive from Corner Brook — roughly 5 to 6 hours each way — which makes it a stretch for a single day trip. Most people who want to see it properly base themselves in St Anthony for a night or two. That said, the Viking Trail north from Corner Brook through Gros Morne and up the Northern Peninsula is one of the great drives in Canada, and if you have the time to make the full run to L'Anse aux Meadows and back, it is a genuinely memorable journey.

Guide

Getting There

Deer Lake Airport (YDF), 45km northeast of Corner Brook, has flights from Halifax and Toronto with Air Canada and WestJet. The drive from the airport into the city takes about 35 minutes on the Trans-Canada Highway. Car hire is available at the airport and strongly recommended — you will need it to reach Gros Morne and the other sights around the city.

Corner Brook is also the main stop on the drive from the ferry terminal at Port aux Basques, 220km to the southwest. Marine Atlantic runs ferries from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques year-round, with crossings taking 5 to 7 hours. The Trans-Canada from Port aux Basques to Corner Brook is a decent drive of about 2.5 hours, through increasingly dramatic landscape as you approach the Long Range Mountains. If you are doing the island by car, Corner Brook is the natural first major stop after the ferry.

Guide

Things to Do

Corner Brook is primarily a gateway town, and most people pass through on the way to Gros Morne. That said, the city has enough of its own to fill a morning or two. The Captain Cook Monument gives you the best viewpoint over the Bay of Islands; the museum complex covers the town's industrial and indigenous history; and Marble Mountain is the only real alpine skiing in Newfoundland.