Parc National Des Hautes-Gorges-de-la Riviere-Malbaie

Aug 13 - After visiting Grand Jardins, the next major park was Hautes-Gorges. This park is very pretty with a series of valleys cut deep in a range of mountains that are the highest rock faces east of the Rockies. A shuttle bus takes you from a central parking lot up a park road with several opportunities to get off for hikes through the beautiful forested mountains. We were headed to the uppermost stop where there was a lake with a boat ride up one of the gorges. This lake had many people out in canoes and kayaks exploring the area at their leisure. When we got out on the tour boat, we saw lots of people in their canoes and having picnic lunches in beautiful spots around the lake. We didn't have time to do canoeing this trip, but it sure looked like this would be a fun place to explore on your own. The concession had plenty of rental canoes and kayaks.

We wanted to take the 1 1/2 hour cruise on Le Menard. As a photographer, it can be frustrating when you have only a limited amount of time and you can't be everywhere during magic light. But you make the most of it. The dusk cruise would probably have given me better light, but we were very near where the whale cruises were and the whales were calling me. We missed the 11:00 boat and had to take the 1:00 cruise.



We had some extra time so I explored this building and the stories of the 1996 flood. I left my camera with Henry and took his as I went up the stairs and followed the trail to an overlook.



I was glad I didn't take my good camera, becasue not only were the stairs steep, but the trail was up and down over rocks and tree roots. But I was glad I had taken Henry's camera because the view from the overlook was spectacular.



If you look carefully, you'll see Henry at one of the chairs on the outdoor patio. I tried to get his attention to wave at him, but he was busy reading something on his iPhone. This visitor center has a little cafeteria where we had a nice lunch and a nice gift store as well.



While you see inukshuks all over northern Canada, there was an area along the lakeshore that had many of them all in one place.



The light and shadows created by the clouds made for some good pictures in spite of it being in the middle of the day.