Gaspé Peninsula

The Gaspé Peninsula was so remote that it sometimes felt like we were at the ends of the Earth. It was remote, sparsely populated and so, so beautiful…our perfect vacation spot!

We probably could have driven the nine hours all the way to the town of Gaspe in one day, but we would have been exhausted, so we decided to split into two shorter days, spending the night in Campbellton. For a short time on our drive we crossed into New Brunswick and changed time zones, then it was back into Quebec Province and Eastern Standard Time. Campbellton is a cute little town and has a beautiful waterfront park where I enjoyed a morning run before we left for Gaspe. On our way to Gaspe we stopped at Miguasha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This small park was created because of the wealth of fossils and is well worth a stop. We enjoyed the museum as well as the trail down to the beach.

We used the town of Gaspé as a base to explore the easternmost part of the peninsula. When we drove into the town we discovered they were having a music festival downtown and our hotel was right next to it! Thankfully it wasn’t too loud! 

We drove down to Percé and enjoyed a cruise out to Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island.  If the weather had been better we would have gotten off at Bonaventure Island and enjoyed a hike on the island. The Island is a national park and is home to the largest colony of Northern Gannet birds in the world and which looked like a great place to hike. When you drive north out of Percé and up the hill make sure to look back at the beautiful view!

We spent the next two days exploring beautiful Forillon National Park. There are two entrances to the park, so our first day we spent in the southern section and the following day in the northern section. We always set out early to try to avoid the crowds and we wanted to take advantage of the good weather, so we hiked  the Mont Saint-Alban Trail to an observation tower with stunning panoramic views of the peninsula. This is definitely a popular trail because we passed a lot of people on our hike down. This is a loop trail and there are several trailheads you can start at (https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/qc/forillon/activ/randonnee-hiking). There is one trailhead in the north section of the park and two in the south. We chose to hike from Petit-Gaspe Beach, which is in the south section. The Les Graves trail, which is a beautiful coastal trail, is especially popular as well, but the L’Anse-aux-Amérindiens section which begins at the end of the road and goes all the way to the end of the peninsula is extremely popular. When we noticed how many cars were at the trailhead we decided against exploring.

On our second day we enjoyed a nice walk to Cap des Rosier Lighthouse and then drove to the end of the road to Cap Bon-Ami and had a nice lunch overlooking a beautiful sand beach cove with stunning views of the coast.

Then it was off to Gaspesie National Park. Instead of driving the coastal road we decided to drive the interior, and it sure is isolated and sparsely populated! When we arrived we decided on a short hike on the La Chute-Sainte-Anne trail before heading to our hotel.  On day two we hiked the La Chute-du-Diable trail to a view of Saint-Anne waterfall.

We had originally planned to spend the next day at the park as well, but decided we had seen enough and set off for Jardins de Metis and had a great visit wandering the beautiful gardens, although it was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be. We had originally planned on spending the night in Mont Joli before starting our journey home, but decided to get a head start and drive to Grand Falls, New Brunswick so we could get home a little earlier the next day.

Brendan & Jen {August 2023}