Review: Hautes Gorges de Malbaie National Park

Location: 160 km (~3 hrs) NE of Quebec, QC
Website: Sepac
Map: Park Map or Google Maps
Camping Facilities:  Backcountry and Car Camping

Paddling up the Riviere Malbaie

Grade: A
Thoughts: This park is a good mix for those who are new to camping and even some moderately-skilled backcountry folk. It has good hiking, seemingly unspoiled wilderness, river paddling opportunities, car camping and backcountry camping.  Its a reasonable drive from Quebec, so it can be counted as accessible too. It centres around the Riviere Malbaie, with its high valley walls providing a sense of majesty when you're wandering inside it on foot or on water.

La Chute de Ruisseau Blanc

Our stay at L'Equerre campsite provided a very nice backcountry feel, with a rewarding paddle up the Malbaie. It can be an hour and a half paddle upstream (but nearly half that downstream), but you won't mind because the scenery make the time fly.  Once you arrive at L'Equerre, you find a campground with sites that are well spaced out and sheltered.  Many are also close to the river, which provides a nice spot to enjoy nature, the wildlife and the landscape of the valley.  You can also hike up to La Chute de Ruisseau Blanc from this campground, an added bonus if you're going to be camping here anyways.  I don't think the trail is worth making the paddle if you didn't intend on going up river anyways; if it you wanted to paddle the river or if you're staying at L'Equerre, then you could probably justify it, its a very short hike even if the waterfall disappoints you.

View SW from L'Acropole des Draveurs 

Another great thing about this campsite is that they provide a hanging pole inland of the campsites.  That way you don't have to find the perfect tree with the thick branch jutting perpendicular to the trunk.  It makes storing food very easy, and more backcountry sites that are clustered together.

The other main hike, L'Acropole des Draveurs, is one that is well worth doing.  The panoramic views are outstanding.  It's a relatively crowded hike, and the path up to the lookout is rather uneventful, but once you get to the top, you'll probably forget all that.  Pack a lunch and stay awhile.

View NW from L'Acropole des Draveurs

I recommend this park strongly for a few reasons;  the sites are relatively well divided, the scenery is beautiful, the paddling is fun, there's easy backcountry food storage and the hiking (especially L'Acropole des Draveurs) is memorable.  In truth, you won't get much sense of solitude here, but as in other parks with outstanding natural beauty, that can be forgiven.

View E from L'Acropole des Draveurs

(Photos courtesy of Adrian Mohareb)

Review: Mauricie National Park - Edouard Lake

Location: 3 hrs (200 km) north of Montreal
Website: Parks Canada
Map: Parks Canada
Camping Facilities: Backcountry and Car Camping
Grade: B+

Setting sun on our
 Lac Edouard campsite

Thoughts: With national parks, I have this expectation that the quality of the scenery and uniqueness will merit national attention and provide shining examples of significant Canadian natural environment for visitors from abroad.  Of the few that I've been to, this has generally been the case.  La Mauricie, however, was a bit of a disappointment.  Its not to say that La Mauricie wasn't beautiful, but compared to other parks in the Laurentians, its not the brightest jewel in the crown.

Mist over Lac Edouard 

La Mauricie is a long 3-hr drive from Montreal, with lots of winding, two-lane roads.  Once you arrive at the park, probably the first thing that strikes you is the pleasantness of the staff.  All of my encounters with staff at this park were very positive and I appreciated that entrance of the park was the gateway to all of the attractions, with no backtracking necessary (take note, Bruce Penninsula National Park).  There are plenty of hiking opportunities, backpacking on the Laurentian Trail and some serious looking canoe routes (complete with 5 km portages), but we had about 20hrs to spend in the park and hence didn't get a chance to do any serious canoe camping.  We settled for Lac Edouard, which was nice and, even mid-August on a weekday, we had the lake to ourselves.  The campsite had been drenched the night before so there really wasn't much chance to enjoy a campfire.

View over hilltop lake

Regarding hiking trails, we did the Mekinac trail, along the Mekinac River.  Its a worthwhile hike, though I imagine one of the less scenic ones. It gives you a great view along the Mekinac, then takes you down to water level to an inlet. You then head back up again (up some stairs, I believe), and then come to a lake which is a nice spot to stop for a water break or some lunch.  There is also the Laurentian backpacking trail that seems to provide some excellent camping, with single sites on lakes scattered through La Mauricie's backcountry.

Lac Edouard at dusk

As far as wilderness goes, you definitely get a sense of it here, being so far from the major urban centres.  As well, its plenty quiet and I'm not sure this place ever is completely booked (though it could very well be on some summer weekends).  This could be because there are a number of high quality camping opportunities in Quebec and roughly half the population of Ontario (and without the wilderness bottleneck found in Central Ontario).  This is all conjecture, but I suspect it has some validity to it.

Mekinac River

I would also guess that anglophone tourists also tend to stay away from Quebec's national and provincial parks (provincial parks are also referred to as national parks in Quebec, so this can lead to some confusion in terminology) due to concerns over communication difficulties.  This shouldn't limit anybody, as many Quebecois are bilingual and those that aren't will meet you halfway (you can use your broken French, they'll use their broken English).  If you stay away from  Quebec's parks due to an inability to speak French, you'll miss out on some of the most amazing scenery in the country, so I urge you to go.

In summary, there seems to be a lot more to La Mauricie than I was able to see, with some very rugged looking backcountry canoe routes and hiking trails.  Considering the terrain, I would guess that travelling along these routes would be quite scenic.  However, from just seeing the easily accessible trails, there's little to inspire when considering other opportunities (see Jacques Cartier & Haute Gorges).  You probably have to venture in much further to justify the drive from Montreal.  

Review: Jacques Cartier National Park

Location: 30 mins north of Quebec City (40 km)
Website: Sepaq
Map: Google Maps
Camping Facilities: Car Camping and Pseudo-Backcountry
Grade: B
Summary: Disappointing camping area, though the park is beautiful and full of activities, geared towards families.

Jacques Cartier River

Thoughts: My first thought when I arrived at this park is that, this would a great place for families.  It's very close Quebec, less than a 30 minute drive.  So it's inevitable that this will attrach a lof of urban/suburban families.  As well, the park operates a fun-looking inner tube (or kayak or raft) ride where staff bring the tubes upstream and allow people to float down the river to a destination further down.  It looks like it would be a great time on a hot summer day.

Still waters on the Jacques Cartier

Regarding the camping though, from what we saw, we were pretty disappointed.  We stayed at the Heron campground and upon our arrival, we found out that we had to hike out gear in across a foot bridge (which wasn't a big deal at all, but it was a suprise, that's all).  However, the sites at Heron were a huge let down.  There was hardly any undergrowth and the sites were close enough that it felt like a communal car camping experience without the convenience of having your car next to you.  If park planners opt to create walk-in sites, it doesn't hurt to spread them out a bit, les gars.  As far as we could tell, there was only one good site (#1) in that campground.  There are a few other campgrounds that were a further hike in, but we didn't end up inspecting them.

Bridge to walk-in sites

One note regarding camping in Quebec's provincial (stated as "national") parks is that the online reservation system is unbelievably convenient.  If only Ontario Parks' contractors could learn a thing or two from these guys.  Detailed information, easy to use, and the "rustic" sites (the equivalent of backcountry, though the ones I've seen have been pretty clustered) are reservable online.  Mind you, they also state that the sites in Jaques-Cartier that we stayed at are "more private".  I guess it's all relative.

Jacques Cartier River

We all know that walk-in sites can be hit or miss when it comes to seclusion, sense of ruggedness, and general beauty.  The sites we found at Jacques Cartier were none of the above.  Well, that's a bit harsh, one can argue the forest in itself is beautiful.  But the campground could have been so much more.  The park itself was very nice and it merits further exploration.  I imagine some of the hikes will afford spectacular views over the valley.  But we were in a rush on this visit, so I can't say first hand.  Overall, it`s a  worthwhile trip to visit Jacques Cartier; it`s a mere 30 minute drive from Quebec, and you`ll feel like you're in the middle of nowhere...until you get to your campsite.