Blanche Brook Trail

The Blanche Brook Trail is located right on the edge of Stephenville on Highway 460 (the bypass), also named Hansen Memorial Highway. There’s a parking area on the north-west side of the road, between the brook and an ATV dealer. The trail starts by running behind the ATV dealer’s property line. There’s a couple of spots where you feel like you are in somebody’s back yard. Part of the trail cuts through the forest beside the brook.

It’s an easy 1 km hike along the brook to where you’ll find the petrified forest fossils. The roughest part of the path is at the very beginning. You’ll see the petrified log damming the brook (photograph above). Upstream from that, if you scramble out onto the rocks, you’ll see lots of wood fossils. Don’t take samples and leave everything the way you found it for the next hiker.