Manuels River Saturday

On Saturday, we went to Manuels River to check out the new interpretation centre and trails with Elizabeth's parents (and Maebe).

Manuels River Trail

Manuels River is about a 20 minute drive from St. John's, and is home to many Cambrian era fossils, namely trilobites. Trilobites are recognizable because their bodies have three separate sections, or lobes - hence the name Tri-lobe-ite.

Trilobites would periodically shed their outer shells, and many of the fossils found at Manuels River are from those discarded exoskeletons, rather than the animal itself. The first trilobite fossils found along the river were discovered in 1874, and complete fossils are uncommon, although some have measured up to 30 cm. Many of the samples in the display cases were donated by Dr. Riccardo Levi-Setti and were gathered during his time conducting research along Manuels River in the 1970s and 1980s.

The interpretation centre is newly opened and the exhibit space is fairly small, but that means that visitors can easily read and digest all of the information without being overwhelmed. There is a large section on trilobites and geology, but it also includes information about wetlands and local animals (relating back to our Something Saturday last week), as well as the history of the Manuels River trails. 

After learning all about fossils, we made our way to the trails. Since the interpretation centre is located in the middle of the river, so you can either hike upstream or downstream from the facility. We decided to go downstream, and left upstream for another visit.

A map of the Downstream trails

An audio guide for use along the trail is also included with your admission, but apparently it takes a couple of hours to listen to all of them. So we selected a couple that we thought may be interesting, and just let nature do the rest of the talking.

Here are a few more pictures from our Something Saturday!