Long Range Traverse Guide: Navigation, the Day-Before Briefing and Fees

The navigation Parks Canada expects

There are no trails on the Long Range Mountains. Parks Canada says the routes are not marked with signs or maintained in any way, and hikers must be proficient with maps, compass and GPS. Beaten paths from earlier hikers are often hard to tell apart from game paths, and low cloud can hide the ground for hours.

Parks Canada sets no test. It says that if nobody in your group has the navigation skills, you need to learn and practice them before you arrive, or bring hikers who have them. Five campsites along the route act as waypoints. The page names topographic map 12H/12 Gros Morne and links a Hiker Preparation Guide, a route description and a GPX track of the route.

The boat, the briefing and the finish

You reach the start on the Western Brook Pond boat tour. Parks Canada says to contact Bontours for reservations and tickets (1-888-458-2016), and that boat delays are one reason the trip can take 3 to 5 days. The route climbs the gorge at the east end of the pond, heads south across the plateau, drops into Ferry Gulch and returns to Highway 430 on the Gros Morne Mountain trail.

To keep your reservation, report to the Gros Morne National Park Visitor Centre at 2:30 pm the day before your departure for a safety briefing and your backcountry permit. If you are delayed, call the Visitor Centre at 709-458-2417. A group that has not checked in by then, and has not called, is a no-show and loses all fees paid.

Fees and cancelling

The Gros Morne fee page lists CA$124.00 per person for the Long Range Traverse, CA$102.25 for the Northern Traverse and CA$182.25 for the two combined. The reservation fee is CA$11.50 online or CA$13.50 by phone, charged per route, per group, and it is not refundable. Park entry is extra: CA$12.25 a day for an adult.

You can create, change or cancel a reservation until 11:59 pm two days before your arrival. Cancel 21 days or more before departure and the backcountry fee is fully refunded, less a CA$11.50 online or CA$13.50 phone cancellation fee. Within 20 days, only 50% of the route fee is refunded, and a date change moves only 50% of it to the new booking.

Launch day

Gros Morne's backcountry (the Primitive sites and the Long Range Mountains) opens with the park's campgrounds on one launch day each year, at 8:30 am Newfoundland time, online or at 1-877-737-3783. Parks Canada has not published the 2027 launch day. Going by past launch days, the booking season usually opens around February 11 to 12. With only 3 starts a day, have two or three start dates ready.

What PermitSnag does here

Each permit page says whether you can set a PermitSnag alert for it, and links to the agency that sells it.

Questions