When we entered Canadian customs, they were not busy; in
fact they were looking for something to do. I wanted to get some wildlife
photos in Canada, but guess they misunderstood me when I told them the purpose
of my trip was to “Shoot some moose”. They decided they would search our RV.
Two agents went through every compartment in the RV looking for drugs, weapons,
sex workers, aliens and rednecks. They automatically assume that all Americans
carry weapons. Well, they didn’t find any contraband.
We set up camp across the St Lawrence River from Old Quebec
City. We would park the RV and take the ferry right to the Old City. We spent
two days exploring the historical part of town. We even took a sightseeing boat
down the river. We moved across the river, visited the Aquarium of Quebec and
stayed at a timeshare 20 km NE of Quebec City. From here we saw many local
attractions and waterfalls. We planned the rest of our trip, making camping
reservations for the next 6 weeks. The most impressive sight was St. Anne
Basilica Beaupre; on par with the best churches in Europe or Russia.
We were surprised to find that Quebec has its own National
Parks, run by SEPAC. There is no connection with Canadian National Parks. First
we took a day trip to Grand-Jardins NP where we did some hiking. We were not
impressed with the park although it was a scenic area. Next we had 5 nights in
Jacques-Cartier NP. We loved this park! Plenty of hiking, biking, and canoeing
and we did it all; such a treasure and less than an hour from Quebec City. We
saw 2 moose on our canoeing trip. Next we stayed at the Wildlife Preserve of
the Laurentians. It sounded interesting, but turned out to be basically a
hunting and fishing camp. We drove back to Jacques-Cartier NP for two more days
of hiking.
We moved north into the Saguenay Valley and visited
Monts-Valin NP. We did some nice hikes there, but it was difficult getting
around the gravel roads park in a RV, so it was just a one day visit. Don’t
know if the rough roads were to blame, but our TV died that day and replacement
will have to wait until Oct. No Olympics
for us. We visited some local attractions that dealt with the history of the
area and learned how important hydro power was to develop the local pulp processing
and alum smelting (ALCOA) plants. We even saw a multimedia show inside a former
elevated water storage tank!
The Saguenay Valley is a cyclist paradise with 100’s of KM
of trails. Point-Taillon NP is basically
a cycling park with a bike trail around and across the entire park. We biked
through the park in hopes of seeing at least one of the many moose that live in
the park, but the moose were camera shy.
The last park we visited in this area is Fjord-du-Saguenay
NP. This large park (319 sq. km) covers most of the coastline of this 105 km long
fjord; the world’s longest fjord at such a low latitude. The main attraction
here is the marine life in the fjord. Unusual as it may seem, a group of Beluga
whales call this fjord home. We watched 20 of them feeding from shore. This was
the first time we saw Belugas in the wild.
We also took a private zodiac ride across the fjord, and saw grey seals.
There are also minke whales in the fjord, but we didn’t pay for a whale
watching tour to see them.
 |
| The river we canoed |
 |
| Biking in Point-Taillon NP |
 |
| Cruising the fjord |
 |
| Fjord-du-Saguenay |
From here we crossed the St Lawrence on a ferry ($154) and
entered the Gaspe Peninsula.
