Forillon National Park / Cap Bon Ami
Day 1 in Forillon National Park | Hiking to Cap Bon Ami | June 2024
For our first full day in Forillon National Park, we decided to spend the day exploring the North side of the park, referred to as the “Cap Bon Ami”. It was about a 20 minute drive from our campground on the South side over to the parking lot for the Cap Bon-Ami Trail. There’s also another campground on this side, and while we had thought about splitting our time between the 2 campgrounds, we ultimately stuck with one because there would have been more fees for making two different reservations. This one was probably the more scenic campground of the two, especially because you could walk to the beach.
When we arrived at the trailhead, we had a quick breakfast at a picnic table overlooking the coast, then readied ourselves for the hike. We decided for our hikes in the national park that since we both really wanted to hike these trails, that we would all start together and go as far as Charlotte wanted, then Curtis and I would take turns finishing the trail while the other waited with her. I don’t always enjoy hiking alone, but since it was a national park with well established trails and lots of other hikers, I felt safer doing so here.
The trail started by going up a wide path through the trees, with plenty of shade and a few glimpses of the high cliffs overhead where we were heading. The trail became more narrow and rocky as it met the cliff, and started going steeply up the side. There was one part where Curtis gave Charlotte a lift because the steps were too high, but other than that she managed to do just fine. We came to a trail junction and turned right, then after some short switchbacks found ourselves at a lookout with our first set of the iconic Canadian national park adirondack chairs!
We took a nice long break here, took some pictures, and admired the view of the rocky cliffs leading out to the Easternmost point of the park. After this, we continued heading up the trail, which had some sets of staircases and gradual elevation most of the way. Charlotte made it as far as another small lookout, and decided this was good enough for her. Curtis sat down with her, and I continued on the trail, walking as fast as I could so he wouldn’t have to wait long. It had been a while since I had done a real hike like this, but I’ve managed to stay in shape by running throughout the spring so I wasn’t too worn out. After plenty of uphill stretches where I was sure each one was the last and I was ‘almost there’, I finally saw the tower, and powered through climbing to the top in one push.
The views from the top were outstanding — there was such great visibility that day in all directions, from the rugged cliffs to the East, the rolling hills to the West, and with the Percé peninsula to the South and a glimpse of the North side of the Gaspe peninsula to the North. I lingered as long as I could, then made my way back down to Curtis and Charlotte. When I reached them, I found that Curtis had already given Charlotte most of the treats I had brought, so I had very little incentive to offer her for the return trip. But shortly after Curtis started on his summit, she got up and was ready to make her descent.
Going back down the trail was almost more slow-going than going up, if only because there were more people and every time she heard someone coming she wanted to stop and see if they would pet her. I was a little nervous about being without Curtis and not being able to speak French, but I managed to make it by with only “bonjour”, “merci” when someone let us pass, and smiling and nodding anytime someone said something that I didn’t understand, usually in reference to Charlotte. On the plus side, I never had to hear anyone mention how old she looked, because I couldn’t understand them!
While Charlotte had been pretty pokey on the easier parts of the trail, as soon as we made it to the steeper and more rocky parts, she suddenly picked up the pace and really wanted to power through that part — the part where I would have been totally fine with stopping and waiting for Curtis to help. But she did great, following my guidance to find the easiest way down, and made it down on her own. Curtis caught up to us shortly after that, and we made our way back to the beginning of the trail. Towards the beginning, there’s a trail junction for a lower lookout with access to the beach, so we decided to go there for lunch and to hang out for a while. Curtis began leading Charlotte that way while I returned to the van to gather some snacks.
We had our lunch on the rocks, watching the waves of the Saint Lawrence roll in, then Curtis and Charlotte took a nap while I wandered around and took pictures. We eventually migrated back up to the lookout and then the picnic area, where Charlotte continued her nap on the grass and Curtis and I read. After spending the better part of the day here, we finally packed up and made the drive back over to our campsite, satisfied with the time we had spent here, and not patient enough to wait until sunset.
