Quebec - Gaspe Peninsula North Shore


When planning this trip I hadn’t before heard of the Gaspé Peninsula, a southeast chunk of Quebec Province that lies south of the St. Lawrence River and juts out east into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But its coastline looks intriguing on the map, it hosts a few national and provincial parks, and it is a natural detour on the way from Quebec City to our ultimate goal: the Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As it turned out, delaying our arrival in the Maritimes was fortuitous as we avoided crossing paths with Hurricane Dorian, which did no small amount of damage in the area and left 500,000 without power. The Gaspe caught some weather from the storm but was mostly spared.

After picking up a rental car in Quebec City we drove along the north shore of the Gaspe Peninsula, visiting points of interest along the way including Parc National du Bic and Parc National de Gaspesie, which, despite their names, are actually provincial parks. We were struck by enormity of the St. Lawrence River, especially in this area where it widens dramatically as it drains into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. You could easily mistake it for the ocean as you can’t often see across to the other side. Plus, the brackish water and sinuous lines of seaweed marking the tidal variations adds to the illusion.

Parc National du Bic



This is Deborah not enjoying the suddenly cold weather


Video panorama of shoreline at Parc National du Bic



La Martre Lighthouse



Birch forest in Parc National du Gaspesie



(photo by Deborah)



(photo by Deborah)



Spruce Grouse. A much larger form of fauna we saw on this hike was a bull moose, but he was too distant and the weather too foggy for me to get a photo worth sharing.



(photo by Deborah)



(photo by Deborah)











St. Lawrence shoreline




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