Port Hope Simpson

Port Hope Simpson, population 529, is a tiny, isolated hamlet in southeastern Labrador.

Understand
Port Hope Simpson was established in the 1930s as a company town, exporting timber to paper mills in Corner Brook until 1948. Exploitation of forestry and timber resumed briefly from 1962 to 1968, with seasonal cod and salmon fishing becoming an economic mainstay in 1970. The Newfoundland cod fishery was closed in 1992 but crab, shrimp and scallop fishing continue.

The Alexis River is popular for recreational salmon fishing.

Get in
Port Hope Simpson, a deep-water port, is accessible by Trans-Labrador Highway, by air and by sea.

By car
Access is taking Highway 510 (Trans-Labrador Highway). The highway opened as gravel in 2009 and was paved by 2022.

From the north, take Route 510 from Cartwright (187 km). There are limited services in Cartwright village and nothing at all at Cartwright Junction. Between Goose Bay and Port Hope Simpson, a 410-km stretch of road through Cartwright Junction has no population centres, no fuel and no services. Highway 510 ends 13 km west of Goose Bay, where it intersects with Highway 500. Highway 500 travels between Goose Bay and the Quebec-Labrador border (also part of the Trans-Labrador Highway) near Labrador City

From the south (and the ferries at Blanc-Sablon) take Route 510 from Forteau through Red Bay and Lodge Bay. A few services (fuel, food, lodging, banking, souvenirs, airstrip) are available en route at Mary's Harbour. An additional 62 km of road (so 222 km in total) continues to Port Hope Simpson.

By snowmobile

 * Extensive snowmobile trails connect Port Hope Simpson to Cartwright, Black Tickle, Charlottetown, Mary's Harbour, Battle Harbour, Lodge Bay and Red Bay.

By boat
As Port Hope Simpson is now accessible by road, its reliance on outport ferries has been greatly curtailed. Traffic arriving from beyond the end of the road network arrives by sea at Goose Bay, Cartwright or Blanc Sablon, then travels on Trans-Labrador Highway.


 * M/V Marine Eagle provides daily service northbound from Charlottetown and Port Hope Simpson to a few small in-region outports with no highway access.
 * M/V Northern Ranger, based in Lewisporte, no longer calls at Port Hope Simpson; service south of Cartwright/Black Tickle has been curtailed and the traffic carried by road. It continues to carry traffic from Goose Bay/Cartwright to points further north, where there is no road.
 * At Blanc-Sablon, there is a ferry to Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula and a coastal ferry which stops at multiple inaccessible outports going westward toward Sept-Îles.

Get around
By boat, ferry, car, truck, snowmobile, snowshoes, skis depending on the time of year. Deep water port with docking facilities, regional airstrip, helicopter pads, groomed snowmobile trails, Nordic ski trails and overnight cabin.

Fuel and repairs are available at P & K Sports and Automotive and at Penney's Pitstop; there's also a fuel station at the Alexis Hotel.



Do
Activities include hiking, camping, fishing, angling, snowmobiling, whale watching and iceberg spotting.

The Alexis Hotel provides guide and tour services to explore the 'Big Country' around Port Hope Simpson and operates various activities such as geocaching (find all ten geocaches and take a digital photo with the banner found in each to receive an Alexis Geocache T-shirt), dog sled rides (for a half-hour or half-day), bingo (8PM Thursdays, year-round) and a photography contest (the Photo Discovery Circuit). Pitts, Props and Prosperity dinner theatre (7PM summer Wednesdays) recalls local history from the 1930s and Sir John Hope Simpson's establishment of the settlement. A day each on skis, snowmobile and snowshoes is offered to groups of six or more as a three-day event; other activities include snowshoeing or cross-country skiing on local trails or scenic un-tracked back-country through wooded hills, scenic valleys and frozen ponds, ice fishing for trout and smelts, fly fishing (salmon or trout), canoeing and kayaking. One can also watch birds, icebergs, whales and wildlife.

Drink
There is a restaurant/lounge and a liquor outlet at the Alexis Hotel.

Connect
Connectivity is limited. There is a small post office; there is no mobile telephone service.

Charlottetown
Tiny outport 50 km (30 miles) north of Port Hope Simpson, small airstrip, few or no services. Ferry connections to otherwise-isolated communities Snug Harbour and Fishing Ships Harbour.

Mary's Harbour
Small crab-fishing village on Trans-Labrador 510, 50 km (30 miles) southeast of Port Hope Simpson, population 475. Mary's Harbour has a small airstrip with Air Labrador service and a ferry crossing to Cape Charles.


 * Battle Harbour National Historic District, a restored fisheries ghost town (established 1750s, abandoned 1960s) is on an island reachable by a one-hour sea crossing from Mary's Harbour. The boat to Battle Harbour makes one run daily, leaving Battle Harbour at 9AM and Mary's Harbour at 11AM, which is awkward as accommodation in the historic buildings on the island is expensive ($225/person for admission, return ferry trip and one bunk overnight in a shared-accommodation bunkhouse is the least expensive, short of paying $2/foot for dockage to bring your own boat plus the $15/person admission. Most of the other overnight options are $500 and up, and the Battle Harbour boat is scheduled to preclude a same-day trip).

Go next
If continuing north, set your watch back a half-hour between Port Hope Simpson and Cartwright as most of Labrador (north of the tiny, dying fishing outport "Black Tickle") uses Atlantic time (AST/ADT). All points between Port Hope Simpson and Forteau (inclusive) use Newfoundland time.


 * Cartwright (Labrador) is 90 km off what passes as the "beaten path" on the Trans-Labrador Highway. There are no services or fuel at Cartwright Junction; Cartwright itself has food and fuel but no hotel, bank or repair garage.
 * The Trans-Labrador Highway onward to Happy Valley-Goose Bay is 410 km of wilderness with no fuel or services. Don't attempt this without a full tank of fuel.