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National park in Quebec, Canada
Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
You'll find Forillon National Park of Canada (French: Parc national du Canada Forillon) at the final Land's End of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula, where the mighty Chic-Choc Mountains collide head-on with the sea. Its unique landscape — an intoxicating juxtaposition of forests, mountains, and shore — means Forillon is a varied place that wears many hats. For hikers and nature lovers, there are nearly 72 km (45 miles) of trails that pass through ten distinct ecosystems, each with a cornucopia of diverse plant and animal life. If getting out on the water is your game, there are whale watching cruises, sea kayaking and paddleboarding excursions — or perhaps you'd rather just bask in the warm, shallow waters of Penouille Beach. Even history buffs have a place at Forillon's table, with a beautifully preserved 19th-century fishing village that pays homage to the hardworking families of old that made their living off the rich bounty of the sea.
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Maison Blanchette
Built in 1901 and now listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places, this brightly-colored cottage was once the home of the Blanchette family, a typical Gaspesian household of the day whose patriarch, Xavier, made his living catching, drying and selling the cod he caught in the waters of Gaspé Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Blanchette House has been painstakingly restored inside and out with rooms furnished in authentic early-20th century style, and it's staffed daily in season by tour guides in period costume who'll lead you through the house, fish shed, and woodshed. Tours conclude in the barn, where the short interpretive video, "We Always Looked to the Sea" (On regardait toujours vers la mer), is screened continuously.
Maison Dolbel-Roberts
Home to successive generations of the Dolbel and Roberts families from 1915 until 1970, this restored building is now a museum whose permanent exhibit, "Gaspesians from Land's End" (Ces Gaspésiens du bout du monde), covers the rich tapestry of communities who have made their home over the years at the east end of the Gaspé Peninsula: from the Mi'kmaq Indians who have lived here from time immemorial, to the intrepid Québécois and Acadian settlers of New France, to the British, Irish and Channel Islander fishing families who moved in after the conquest of Quebec in 1760, to newer arrivals such as Italians and Jews. As well, with the cooperation of a number of former residents, the museum also tells the unfortunate and still-controversial story of the families whose homes were expropriated by the Canadian government in 1970 to create the national park.
Magasin Hyman & Sons
Built by William Hyman, a Russian Jewish merchant who settled in Grande-Grave in 1864, this duo of handsome buildings on the shore of Gaspé Bay were a centre of the town's community life in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Out of these premises Hyman operated a business that was eventually the main employer in Grande-Grave: an enterprise comprised of the town's main general store, selling imported household goods of all kinds, as well as a fishing business that was the chief rival in the region to the Paspébiac-based Charles Robin Company which controlled a great majority of the Gulf of St. Lawrence cod fishery at the time. Today, the interior of the store has been restored to its late-19th century appearance, with antique goods on the shelves ranging from clothing to porcelain table service to patent medicines to farm implements. As well, museum exhibits are contained in the former Hyman family living quarters on the second floor of the main building as well as the fish warehouse a few steps down the hill, which detail the various ways of life practised by Grande-Grave residents of the day, extracting their needs from the land and sea on a seasonal basis through fishing, logging, and small-scale farming. There's also a short film, "Time and Tide Remembered" (Mémoire de sel), screened in a small room just off the floor of the general store.
Phare du Cap-Gaspé
Standing atop seaside bluffs that loom 95 m (310 feet) over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Cap-Gaspé Lighthouse marks the final "land's end" of the Gaspé Peninsula. Built to ward incoming ships away from Flowerpot Rock, a reef located just off the south shore of the cape, the current Cap-Gaspé Lighthouse is the third to stand on the site: built in 1950 to replace a shorter wood-frame structure that collapsed four years earlier, which in turn was a replacement for the original 1873 lighthouse that was lost to fire. Today, the lighthouse is fully automated and run on solar power, and accessible on foot or by bike.
Fort Péninsule
Quebec's only fully preserved World War II-era shoreline battery, Fort Peninsula was one of the three fixed defences that comprised HMCS Fort Ramsay, a naval base established in 1942 by the Canadian military to defend against Nazi U-Boat attacks, to ensure the safety of merchant vessels passing through the region, and to serve as a refuge for the British Royal Navy in the event that Hitler's forces were to successfully conquer the UK. Naturally sheltered by the rocky spits and shallows of La Penouille and Sandy Beach, nineteen warships were based here, serving a key role in waging the Battle of the St. Lawrence which saw 23 Allied vessels sunk by German subs off Canada's east coast. Today, visitors can walk through the underground corridors of the fortification and observe the vintage gun mortars and other artillery still pointed seaward, and read descriptive panels along the way that explain the strategic military importance of the Gaspé Peninsula during the Second World War. Outside, there's a pleasant seaside picnic area.
Tour d'observation du Mont-Saint-Alban
At the end of the moderate-difficulty hiking trail up Mont-Saint-Alban lies an observation tower 10 m (33 feet) in height, affording hikers 360-degree panoramic views over Forillon and the surrounding area — including Cap-des-Rosiers Lighthouse, Cap Bon-Ami, Cap Gaspé, and, of course, the open waters of the St. Lawrence Estuary, Gaspé Bay, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. On a clear day, you can even see Bonaventure Island and Percé Rock in the far distance.
Located in the park's mountainous interior between Cap-des-Rosiers and Cap-aux-Os, this one-km (0.6-mile) loop descends the steep valley of a babbling brook, passing by a lovely waterfall tucked away in a grove of maple and cedar trees. This easy trail is marked with a wooden boardwalk for much of the way, but features some steep steps.
The name of this trail, which translates to "A Prelude to Forillon", is no misnomer: this 600-m (0.3-mile) boardwalk behind the North Area Interpretation Centre (Centre d'interprétation du secteur nord) provides a bird's-eye view over all of the park's diverse landscapes, forest-carpeted mountains and cliff-lined seashores alike. Multisensory interpretation modules are on hand to further elucidate what you're seeing and help you get a sense of what Forillon is all about. Prélude à Forillon is the easiest trail in the park, and the only one that is fully wheelchair-accessible.
On the pancake-flat sand spit of La Penouille, this trail passes through one of the furthest-south stretches of boreal forest on the planet. The taiga that gives the trail its name is a fascinating ecosystem of lichen-crusted trees, rare and endangered plants such as the daisy-leaf moonwort, and marsh birds feeding in the brackish offshore shallows (bring your own binoculars to the viewing blind at the edge of the marsh to observe these guys unobtrusively). The trail begins on the side of the access road 1 km (0.6 miles) past the visitor centre parking lot and proceeds for 1.5 km (0.9 miles) ending at a point further along the access road, making for a loop of 2.8 km (1.7 miles) total. As the taiga is a fragile environment that's extremely sensitive to human intrusion, hikers need to stay on the marked trails.
This 3-km (2-mile) loop through the Grande-Grave Heritage Site begins at the parking lot next to Grande-Grave Wharf. Starting with a rather steep uphill climb back toward the road and further inland, you'll pass through open fields dotted with handsome saltbox houses that once belonged to the fishing families that made their living for generations on the cod that teemed in the waters off Forillon. You can check out the museum exhibits in the restored Dolbel-Roberts House and Hyman & Sons Warehouse that trace the history of Grande-Grave as a fishing community, or just enjoy the ubiquitous panoramic views over Gaspé Bay.
Grave (more commonly spelt grève) is an archaic French word referring to a pebble or gravel beach, and hikers on this path can certainly see their share of those as they meander between the inland forest and the edge of the shoreline bluffs on their way to land's end at Cap-Gaspé, where the eponymous Cap-Gaspé Lighthouse awaits with sweeping views over the open waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Les Graves Trail begins at Grande-Grave Wharf and extends 7.6 km (4.7 miles) one-way to land's end, but hikers who'd rather do an abbreviated version of the trail can begin at the alternate trailhead located at the end of the asphalt road at L'Anse-aux-Amérindiens (limited parking available), from which point Cap-Gaspé is a 4-km (2.5-mile) hike one-way. Hikers should allow 4½ hours and 2½ hours round-trip, from Grande-Grave and L'Anse-aux-Amérindiens respectively. The trail is paved in gravel for much of the way, especially closer to Grande-Grave, but the steep ascents as you approach Cap-Gaspé may prove a challenge for novice hikers.
For a slog up a mountain 283 m (934 feet) above sea level, the Mont-Saint-Alban Trail is surprisingly easy — especially once you've got the steep ascents near the shore under your belt. As you climb through the alpine forest that clings to the mountainsides, you'll be blown away by stunning overlooks at seemingly every turn — but the most magnificent of them are saved for the grand finale, at the top of the observation tower at the summit. Mont-Saint-Alban is accessible from two separate starting points at opposite sides of the park: head to the south trailhead at Petit-Gaspé Beach (Plage de Petit-Gaspé) for a more gradual and leisurely ascent, while the north trailhead at Cap Bon-Ami kicks off a short, steep climb. If you choose to continue past the observation tower, there's a loop trail that rings the base of the mountain; the total distance is 7.2 km (4.5 miles) from Petit-Gaspé and 7.8 km (4.8 miles) from Cap Bon-Ami. If you'd rather just do the observation tower and back, the round trip is 5.4 km (3.4 miles) from Petit-Gaspé and 3.8 km (2.4 miles) from Cap Bon-Ami.
This all-day hike (seven hours round-trip) through the dense mountain forest leads you over the ridge of the Chic-Chocs from one side of the park to the other via a steep valley carved by the Anse-au-Griffon River and other waterways, where bears, moose, and other woodland wildlife abound. Le Portage Trail is wide, paved with gravel, stretches 10 km (6.25 miles) in length, and shares a northern terminus with its companion trail described below: the Le Portage/La Vallée north trailhead is located in L'Anse-au-Griffon, 1.4 km (0.9 miles) off Route 132 at the end of Chemin du Portage. The Le Portage south trailhead is located at the Operational Centre (Centre opérationnel) east of Fort Peninsula.
A shorter and somewhat less wild alternative to Le Portage, the gravel-paved La Vallée Trail passes through a similarly forested milieu on the other side of the river but boasts a pair of picnic areas and a shelter. The La Vallée south trailhead is located at a junction with Le Portage trail about 4 km (2.5 miles) from its northern terminus; like its counterpart, it ends at the parking lot at the end of Chemin du Portage in L'Anse-au-Griffon. You can hike it from one end to the other and back for a 9.2-km (5.8-mile) round trip, or combine it with the northern part of Le Portage to form an 8.6-km (5.3-mile) loop that crosses the river twice. Either way, plan for about 2½ hours overall.
The middle sector of the three-in-one trail that extends across Forillon lengthwise takes you along the crests (crêtes in French) of the mountain ridge on the spine of the peninsula, through a wooded and mountainous milieu with panoramic highland vistas and distant glimpses of Gaspé Bay and the St. Lawrence Estuary popping their heads up frequently. It's a distance of 18.2 km (11.3 miles) from the trailhead near the operational centre to Petit-Gaspé Beach where the Les Graves trail picks up: a hike of 6½ hours one-way.
This trail takes its name from the many pristine mountain lakes hikers pass as they climb, dip, and meander their way through the mighty Chic-Choc Mountains. Watch out for black bears and other wildlife as you make your way through the boreal forest, and take time out to admire the scenic mountaintop views (the ones in the Morris River valley near the trail's west end are a particular highlight). Les Lacs trail extends 17.6 km (10.9 miles) from the park's western boundary at Rivière-Morris to its junction with the Le Portage trail, where the Les Crêtes trail picks up. Allow 6 hours one-way.
Operating out of Grande-Grave Wharf from June 1 through Thanksgiving weekend, Croisières Baie-de-Gaspé offers bilingual whale-watching cruises in a 48-passenger, handicap-accessible aluminum boat (the Narval III) that is specially designed to safely approach whales at closer proximity than other boats, giving passengers an up-close-and-personal look at these massive creatures from the comfort of a large, well-equipped vessel. The waters surrounding Forillon are home to seven species of whale, as well as playful dolphins and harbour seals that passengers often see sunning themselves on offshore rocks — and as the only whale-watching cruise authorized to operate within the national park, there's a refreshing lack of tour boat traffic and other cacophonous brouhaha to muck up your experience (just what the doctor ordered if you're arriving from touristy Percé). Standard cruises last 2½ hours and cover both the north and south shore of Forillon, furnishing good views not only of sea life but also of the Cap-des-Rosiers Lighthouse (Phare de Cap-des-Rosiers) and The Old Man (Le Vieux), a vaguely anthropomorphic sea stack that stands just off Cap Gaspé. Private charters are also available, which will take you to the seabird colony at Cap Bon-Ami or even as far as Bonaventure Island and Percé Rock. Cruises leave rain or shine, and binoculars and rain gear are available for rental.
If undersea diving is your cup of tea, Plongée Forillon is worth checking out: rain or shine from July 1 to September 1. Rent a full set of snorkel equipement (full wetsuit, fins, mask, snorkel) from their kiosk.
Opportunities for the adventurous visitor to Forillon don't come much better than Cap Aventure's guided kayak tours. To call what they offer "seal-watching excursions" wouldn't do them justice: much more than just another touristy trifle, these tours are true educational experiences, where seasoned guides put their affiliation with the Marine Mammal Watchers' Network (Réseau d'observateurs des mammifères marins) to good use in providing a window into the delicate ecosystem of Gaspé Bay, conducted in a manner that is sustainable and respectful of the natural environment. It's not all dry academia, though — the learning experience is punctuated daily by unforgettable sights like a pod of seals dancing and playing around your boat, the plaintive bellow of whales breaching in the distance, and seabirds by the hundreds taking flight from the top of the sheer seaside cliffs. Cap Aventure offers a range of excursions tailored to customers' individual needs: the short Meet the Seals (Rencontre avec les phoques) excursion is open to participants five and older and sticks to the interior of Gaspé Bay, while longer tours round Cap Gaspé into the estuary or even pass southward down the Gaspesian coast as far as Bonaventure Island. The Seals at Sunset (Phoques au coucher du soleil) excursion is especially popular. All excursions depart from Cap-aux-Os Beach just outside the park boundary, with the exception of the Cap-Gaspé tour, which leaves directly from Grande-Grave Wharf, and Around Forillon (Pourtour de Forillon) which leaves from Cap-des-Rosiers.
"Zodiac Safaris" out to the seal colonies in a 12-passenger boat helmed by an experienced captain-cum-docent. The season runs begins May 8 (June 1 for zodiac excursions) and runs through October 6, and wetsuits are provided during the spring and fall. Website in French only.
The Forillon branch, located at La Penouille Visitor Centre, is perhaps best known for offering stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) — a new-school watersport that's perhaps best compared to surfing with an oar.
Camping Cap-Bon-Ami
Open June 19 through September 6. Perfect for those in search of a primitive camping experience, this is about the closest experience to the backcountry that Forillon offers without actually being in the backcountry. In a cliffside clearing next to the Mont-Saint-Alban trailhead lie 38 unserviced sites for tents.
Camping Des-Rosiers
Open May 30 through October 11. Des-Rosiers campground comprises 147 lots, both with and without electric hookups, in a wooded milieu in the north sector of the park. There's a playground for kids nearby, a dumping station located at the campground entrance, and water outlets also available. Des-Rosiers campground also includes eight oTENTik tents of the "Basic Service" variety — furnished indoors with three beds, a table, four chairs and a bench, and with a picnic bench, campfire pit, and parking for two vehicles outside — that are available at a rate of $148/night.
Camping Petit-Gaspé
Open June 19 through September 6. If you want a secluded wilderness experience, look elsewhere — but if you want to be within an easy walk of a gaggle of fun activities, Petit-Gaspé may be the campground for you. Forillon's largest campground (with 167 sites) is located a short distance away from the Petit-Gaspé Recreation Centre, with a playground, swimming pool, snack bar, tennis and volleyball courts, and numerous other amenities. As at Des-Rosiers, sites come with or without electricity, and dumping stations and water outlets are provided. Petit-Gaspé's Loop F is made up of seven oTENTik tents, where, for a price of $133/night, those who've opted for the "Ready-to-Camp" package can avail themselves of all the amenities provided by the basic service plus indoor heating, electricity, a small fridge, dishes and utensils, and a hotplate (cooking allowed outdoors only).
By plane
In most cases, taking a flight to Forillon means landing at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (Aéroport international Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau) (YUL) in Montreal or Jean Lesage International…
By bike
The tentacles of the Route Verte, Quebec's interconnected, provincewide network of dedicated bike paths and lanes that's the largest on the American continent, extend to Forillon as well.
On foot
S. Appalachian Trail that continues past Mount Katahdin in Maine through Canada, Greenland, various countries of Western Europe, and Morocco.
By bus
The network of RéGÎM, the rural transit organization that serves the region, includes a bus that passes through Forillon: Route 21, which traverses Highway 132 from L'Anse-au-Griffon to Place…
By boat
For those visiting Forillon by boat, there's limited docking space at Grande-Grave Wharf (Quai de Grande-Grave). Rates depend on the size of your boat: 90¢ per foot per day.
Being a relatively small park, getting from place to place within Forillon is a fairly straightforward proposition.
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ItinerariesThe International Appalachian Trail (French: Sentier International des Appalaches) is an itinerary primarily in Maine, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador, with extensions and affiliated trails in…
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