Talk:Trans-Labrador Highway
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From Baie Comeau (Quebec), the highway crosses into Labrador (QC 389 becomes NL 500) just west of 1 Labrador City. There is an enclosed mall and an airport in Labrador City-Wabush.
The 250km from Labrador City east to 2 Churchill Falls should take about three and a half hours, with no settlements in between. Churchill Falls is famous (or infamous) primarily as a hydroelectric generating station. The village itself has about 600 people, with the Churchill Dam as primary employer. There is a hotel, restaurant, supermarket and fuel but no automotive repairs. There is a tiny airport.
From Churchill Falls, it's another 260km to Muskrat Falls; there's little there other than a 15m waterfall and a hydroelectric station under construction, but 30km beyond Muskrat Falls is the end of Highway 500 in 3 Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Goose Bay is a town of 7500 people built around a former air force base; Goose Bay and Gander were once popular as refuelling stops for aircraft destined to Europe but few now stop here.
Just before Goose Bay, the Trans-Labrador highway turns south onto Highway 510 toward Cartwright Junction (the Highway 510/516 crossroads, no services). 4 Cartwright is 90km off the Trans-Labrador mainline and has limited amenities (the hotel burned down in 2013 and has not yet been rebuilt); ferries run from Goose Bay and Cartwright to otherwise-inaccessible coastal outports.
Follow Highway 510 south through Cartwright Junction and along the Labrador Coastal Drive through 5 Port Hope Simpson and Mary's Harbour to Red Bay.
- Battle Harbour National Historic District, a restored fisheries ghost town (established 1750s, abandoned 1960s) is reachable by a one-hour sea crossing from Mary's Harbour (50km southeast of Port Hope Simpson). As the boat only runs once daily, there is no means to visit Battle Harbour as a same-day side trip.
- 6 Red Bay is a tiny (227 people) fishing village and UNESCO-listed archaeological site (former Basque whaling station) on the Strait of Belle Isle.
It's 540km on primitive gravel road from Goose Bay to Red Bay.
Head west through 7 Forteau and exit Labrador to Blanc-Sablon (technically in Québec but only easily reachable from Newfoundland and Labrador, 80km west of Red Bay). Food and lodging are available in Forteau-Blanc Sablon. Take the ferry across the Strait of Belle Isle to the island of Newfoundland. The ferry crossing takes 90 minutes to St. Barbe (except in winter, when it takes a far longer path to Corner Brook.)
Total driving time across Labrador, from Labrador City to Forteau, is about sixteen hours of mostly remote wilderness.