Birgitta Wallace, who led the Parks Canada excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows, thinks that the site was used as a base or depot that could be easily found by ships sailing south from Greenland. From L'Anse aux Meadows, short expeditions or voyages could be taken southwards to collect timber, to hunt walrus, or to trade for furs. The scarcity of remains such as artifacts and animal bones at L'Anse aux Meadows suggests that the occupation lasted only a few years.

This may explain why the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows was located in such an isolated location. Much richer and more varied animal resources existed across the Strait of Belle Isle in Labrador and further south on the coasts of Newfoundland, and there is little evidence that indigenous people settled in the northern part of the island. Indeed, it may have been the only region along the entire eastern seaboard of North America where the Norse could expect to be relatively undisturbed by their indigenous neighbors.