Just an FYI... Quebec's "national" parks are actually provincial parks. They are NOT run by Parks Canada, and Canada's national parks passes do not work here.
We have never been to Gaspesie National Park. But we had read it was beautiful and several friends had recommended the Mont Albert hike as being one of the best.
That's the mountain we will be climbing.
A waterfall we stopped at near the visitors center.
Gaspesie National Park is pretty remote and there is no cell signal. But they do have free WiFi at the visitors center.
Also free parking for day use visitors, although we had to pay $9.85 CAD ($7.25 USD) tax included for a day pass for each of us.
We had some breakfast, and packed a lunch and set off at 9:00am for the 17 km (10.5 mile) circular route hike up to Mont Albert.
On the trail at 9:10am.
Heading higher.
The trail is fairly steep, gaining 876 meters over 6.1 kms (2,900' over 3.8 miles). It is listed as a "challenging" hike!
A lookoff along the way has a view of the visitors center.
As we were standing at the lookoff, this Canada jay flew up and sat really close to us.
Also known as a grey jay.
Back on the trail.
Uphill every step of the way.
Made it to the top at 11:45am.
It was totally fogged in!
We had our lunch up there, but it never did clear up. It was quite chilly with a breeze and it's a good thing we were prepared with our winter hats and layers of clothes with us.
There is a small lake on the plateau at the top.
Gaspesie National Park is home to the only herd of caribou south of the St. Lawrence River. Unfortunately, they were not grazing on the plateau while we were there, and the girl at the visitors center had said we had more chance of seeing a moose than we did a caribou.
Really different landscape up there.
Ussie in the fog!
We are headed down there.
It's 11 kms (6.8 miles) by taking the longer route back down. But it's more scenic and more varied landscapes than the way up was.
Me!
I can imagine that this would be a real rushing waterfall in the spring.
Avalanche zone.
Not at this time of year though.
The trail was very rocky for a couple of miles. It was tiring to walk on.
A little maple bush changing color.
We followed this stream for a while.
I took a video of Ruth carefully making her way across the stream...
We didn't see any moose, but we saw a lot of moose footprints!
Beautiful view of Lac du Diable.
Waterfall off in the distance.
The Gaspesie Hotel opened in 1950.
Made it back to Igor at 4:30pm. So, seven and a half hours to do the 17 km (10.5 mile) hike. We were pretty tired. Haven't done a hike like that since June!
Then we drove into the town of Sainte Anne des Monts where they allow free overnight RV parking behind the local arena. There were three other rigs there, but it was a very quiet night!
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Fyi, the Canada Jay is Canada's national bird.
ReplyDeleteWe never knew that, thanks!
Deleteloved that hike. Such a wide variety of terrain and scenery.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great but definitely a strenuous one! There was a lot of different terrain and scenery along the way. The trail going up was so totally different from the trail at the top which was almost lunarscape in places and then again a totally different terrain going down. Too bad we didn't get to see the views at the top, we are sure they would have been fantastic if we had.
DeleteThis hike will help to get us in shape for some good hikes out in the Rockies next week.