Great Gardens

Two an a half months ago,  during my last visit to  Le Massif,  I did a side-trip one evening, about 30 km north of Baie St. Paul, to the Parc National des Grands Jardins.

It’s mountainous region, where the elevations get up to ~ 3000 feet.   Not huge by Western standards, but this far north, you’re already starting to push the tree-line.

“Grand Jardins”  translates into “Great Garden”.    And the place truly does look like that in the summer and fall.

The climate here is similar to the taiga found further north in Quebec.    It’s unique enough that it’s been included in UNESCO’s World Biosphere Reserve in Charlevoix.   They even have woodland caribou that were transplanted here from in the 60′s.

All this, just an hour and a half from Quebec City.

This day was a nice early spring day, and the roads were good.   Though I’d hate to imagine driving this in the dead of winter.   The roads are steep and winding and you can drive for miles before there’s a place to pull over or turn around.

Living East of the Rockies,  it’s a novelty for me to see big mountains.    Of course, there are some decent mountain ranges in New England, but nothing really, in Canada.    I was surprised to “discover” these.   It seems very few people outside of Quebec know about them.

While these aren’t exactly the Rockies, they could easily qualify as being the foothills of the Rockies.

And that’s good enough for me.

And will tide me over until the next time I head to BC.

PS.   I’ve included The Bear in one of these photos.   Can you spot him?

Explore posts in the same categories: The Outdoor Friar

Tags: Mountains, outdoors, Parc de Grands Jardins, skiiing

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