A salt-laced breeze sweeps across open grasslands. The gray/blue North Atlantic sky lies low, pressing the landscape. The fragrance of seaweed drifts from the rocky shore. Wildflowers dance. You stand on the edge of an ancient, untamed, and remote land.

More than 1,000 years ago, Norse explorers crossed this expanse and reached Newfoundland’s northern tip. They left behind evidence of the only confirmed Viking settlement in North America. Today, L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Siteis a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Newfoundland’s Viking Trail. Here, visitors can step on the very ground where Viking sailors landed, centuries before Columbus reached the Americas.