Known as Gaspésie here, the Gaspé Peninsula is the peninsula at the end of Quebec bordered by the St. Lawrence River on the north (it looks more like an ocean here), the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the east, and Chaleur Bay on the south. The Appalachian Mountains run thru the peninsula. Rivers and glaciers cut deep gorges through them, leaving u-shaped valleys. At the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, Gaspé and Percé sit on the cliffs and plunging headlands where the Appalations meet the sea.
Gaspè is derived from the Micmac Indian word Gespeg, meaning "end of the land"
. There are five natural areas that make up the peninsula:
- The Coast (the north western area);
- The Haute-Gaspésie (north central);
- Land's End (the most eastern tip), where the towns of Gaspé and Percé are;
- The Chaleur Bay (south); and,
- The Matapédia Valley (south west).
The loop around the peninsula is 885 km. We got off the ferry at Matane, midway through The Coast region.
The weather was not pleasant on the ferry (cold, windy, rainy), at Matane (cold, windy, rainy), nor along our trip to the town of Gaspé (cold, windy, rainy, foggy) on Monday. On the ferry it didn't matter as much, as it was dark for much of the 2 hours and the ferry was huge with six floors, a cafeteria, a bistro, and several airplane-style seating areas. But it wasn't the best weather for sightseeing along the coast, or for picture-taking (grey skies, grey water). C'est la vie ... we've been pretty lucky with our weather on this trip.
On Monday, we passed thru many villages in The Coast, Haute-Gaspésie and Land's End regions, going thru Forillon National Park and ending in the town of Gaspé for the night
. The feel on the peninsula is more Maritimes than Quebec, with the lighthouses and colorful wooden houses perched on the capes and nestled in the crags and crannies. Makes sense, with New Brunswick just to the south of us. We stopped for lunch at a restored lighthouse keeper's house that's now a restaurant / gift shop, and we felt like we had walked into their family dinner. Just a couple of tables right in the kitchen, with half a dozen people including the two older ladies running the store, having lunch around a big table. All of them talking loudly in French at the same time. Made me smile. It was a pretty quiet day otherwise - not much activity in the Gaspésie. We're past prime season and the weather was not conducive to being outside. We landed in the town of Gaspé for the night, had shrimp and smoked salmon linguine for supper, and hunkered down in our room out of the rain and fog.
The next day we wandered around the town of Gaspé a little, but the weather was still unfriendly
. Our next stop was Percé, less than an hour south along the coast. Hands down our favorite spot on the Gaspésie. Still foggy, cold and windy there on Tuesday, but we bucked it up and wandered about the village, trying to catch glimpses of Percé Rock. The fog would settle in, and no rock. Then it would lift and there it was. Not like it's small - it's a pretty amazing limestone monolith. It now has only one arch, but it used to have three, then two (what used to be an arch is now completely eroded into a full passageway). Île Bonaventure, just 3.5 km off the coast, was completely hidden in the fog.
The plan had been to leave Percé on Wednesday morning. But the day dawned bright and sunny, and so we headed to the pier to take a bateau to Île Bonaventure. Bonaventure Island is an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It's 1.6 sq mi in size, and it's claim to fame is that 293 different species of birds have been recorded as visiting, migrating to, or living there. The most common bird found on the island is the northern gannet, but we also saw gulls and cormorants
. There are about 110,000 gannets on the island, one of the largest colonies of gannets in the world. They said it's in the top two bird sanctuaries in the world.
The birds all congregate on the south side of the island, along the rock walls and on the plateaus. The boat circles the island, which allows you to see the birds in the rock ledges, and the grey seals lounging on the rocks in the sun and swimming along the boat (we saw both!). We were also able to watch the gannets fishing. They soar above the water and then dive straight down from up to 100 ft in the air, straight down like an arrow, hitting the water at 100 km/hr. Very cool to watch. Once underwater, they can stay there, using their wings to propel themselves thru the water, allowing them to catch fish much deeper than other seabirds (we saw a video). :)
The boat then drops you on the north side and there are a few different trails you can hike across to the other side. As you approach the bird colony, the noise and smell hit you
. Pretty amazing to see the thousands of birds together, and to watch their head-wagging and swooning, and their landing antics.
We left Percé around 2:30 pm Wed, and started what will be a very long trek home (Roger figures 8 days of driving 6-8 hrs/day). What were we thinking? We finished the drive of the south side of Gaspésie, along the beautiful Chaleur Bay, and made it to Grand Falls, New Brunswick late on Wed night (we finally got to hear some French Canadian-type music on the radio when we hit New Brunswick. We had been eagerly anticipating it in Quebec, but it was elusive).
From New Brunswick, we're planning to go thru Maine, New Hampshire (stay at Littleton), Vermont, New York (stay at Watertown), then back up thru Ontario (stay at Guelph for two days for a break), and then 3-4 days to Regina.
Gaspé Peninsula
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Perce, Quebec, Canada
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2025-02-15