UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Newfoundland
Guest Post and Photos by Amy Perry Basseches
Here’s an interesting idea: check the UNESCO World Heritage Site List before you travel. As of today, there are 1092 sites noted, and you never know what you will find. To be included on the UNESCO List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of ten selection criteria, which range from exhibiting human creative genius, or unique cultural tradition, or outstanding architecture, or exceptional natural beauty, and more. Certainly, the locations I’ve visited, including three recently in Newfoundland, when traveling with Adventure Canada, provide great insights into history, culture and the environment.
First, near the northern tip of Newfoundland, I saw L’Anse aux Meadows, the remains of an 11th Century Viking settlement, evidence of the first European presence in North America. The archaeological remains found in 1960 date to approximately 1000 AD. Amazingly, the location was first established by a close reading of the Viking sagas. Adventure Canada travelers learned from Parks Canada interpreters about Norse expansion and how L’Anse aux Meadows’ excavations informed the world about Norse travels, trade, and encampments.
Second, just over the Strait of Belle Isle from northern Newfoundland lies the town of Red Bay, Labrador, home to the Red Bay Basque Whaling Station. Beginning in the 1500s, Basque whalers operated out of Red Bay harbor, at one time the largest whaling station in the world, and the best-preserved testimony of early European whaling tradition. In the mid-1970s, research uncovered this chapter in Canadian history, and thus helped to explain why some 7,000 Canadians claim Basque ancestry. Here, we hiked around the whaling grounds on Saddle Island, but my favorite memories of Red Bay are eating delicious fresh fish chowder at the local Whalers Restaurant (cod, halibut, salmon, scallops!), while Alan Doyle sang to the waitstaff.
Lastly, situated on the west coast of Newfoundland, Gros Morne National Park provides proof of continental drift and plate tectonics. "The rocks of Gros Morne National Park collectively present an internationally significant illustration of the process of continental drift along the eastern coast of North America and contribute greatly to the body of knowledge and understanding of plate tectonics and the geological evolution of ancient mountain belts," according to UNESCO. The former Parks Canada superintendent of Gros Morne traveled onboard with us, and we hiked in the park with him and other guides.
Heading back to Maine last week with the family, it’s hard not to think of all the stories I crafted on the adventures in this state. The vast wilderness of the interior and rambling ocean shoreline has provided the inspiration for at least 100 stories and many chapters of travel guidebooks. Paddling on Long Pond and listening to loons in Maine’s North Woods, it was hard not to think of the time I paddled with the Conovers on the Allagash River or Kevin Slater on the West Branch of the Penobscot, still one of my favorite stories for 
Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches 
As an outdoor writer based in New England, I’ve spent a good deal of time following in Henry David Thoreau’s footsteps, from climbing Monadnock and Katahdin to walking the shoreline of the upper Cape to swimming in Walden Pond. In 1864, the great naturalist and philosopher published his book “The Maine Woods” that chronicles his exploration of the remote Maine waterways. In October 2009, I had the good fortune to paddle down the West Branch of the Penobscot River following his route. Our guide was Kevin Slater, a legendary Maine paddler who learned these rivers and the skill to carve his own canoes and paddles from his mentor who he simply called, “the Old Timer.” We spent four glorious days on the water, with few other paddlers, spotting moose, bear, loons, and osprey. In the backdrop was mighty Katahdin, the end point of the Appalachian Trail. The 
An hour’s drive northeast of Las Vegas, rows of creosote bushes and gnarly-looking Joshua trees lead to ridges of sandstone. Crossing into Utah, these walls of rock become far more dramatic, shaped into a phantasmagoric blend of towering cliff walls, slot canyons, lonely buttes, and organ-shaped mesas. It’s a harsh, rugged terrain, best suited for pioneers and as a backdrop for 1940s Westerns. You half expect John Wayne to pop out of the bush and mutter, “I’m hoping to round up a posse and you’re it.” 
Cape Cod is so close to Boston that I often drive there on a day trip, which is exactly what we did yesterday to meet my cousin, Peter, and his family in town from Dallas. I took them on a ride we do each summer. We start on Main Street in Orleans in the lot next to Orleans Cycle and head out on the Cape Cod Rail Trail toward Eastham. Soon we pass the velvety marsh, where red-winged blackbirds sit atop the swaying cattails and cormorants dry their wings on floating docks. At Locust Road, we veer right off the CCRT and cross over Route 6 to reach the Cape Cod National Seashore Visitor Center. This is the start of a 2-mile bike trails that sweeps up and down through the forest and marsh, leaving you off at Coast Guard Beach, recently named one of the top 10 beaches in America. However, I think the beach up the road, Nauset Light, is even more scenic, backed by towering dunes. We lock up our bikes and walk down to the sweeping beach. Yesterday, there was at least 20 seals popping their heads out of the surf.