Hiking in Le Haut Gaspe

Hiking Mont des Pics | Spending a Day in Mont Saint Pierre, QC | July 2024

At this point in our road trip, we found ourselves having to make some alterations to our original plans. When we first started this adventure, we thought we would have 3 weeks between being in Ohio and our next assignment, so we planned only to drive around the Gaspe peninsula, through Quebec City, then back into the US to slowly make our way to our next destination. However, we now found ourselves with an extra month to travel. We will certainly never take that for granted, but also, we weren’t especially eager to do anything extravagant to fill that time. We loved our Canadian Rockies/drive to Alaska trip last year, but we weren’t wanting to take a similar trip that would rack up a bunch of miles on the van. Our solution was to find the happy medium between ‘staying in one place and waiting until the assignment’ and ‘filling the entire month with ambitious travel (e.g. driving to Newfoundland)’. And to us, that looked like spending a couple more days on the Gaspe peninsula, then taking a ferry across the St. Lawrence to explore a bit of the North shore, known as the Cote-Nord region. We researched the different ferries we could take, found one that looked to suit our trip the best, and made reservations for the soonest we could, which was 2 days after leaving Forillon National Park.

Since we had committed to staying on the peninsula for two more days, we began looking for more things to do in the area. We could have taken two days to drive down the coast to the ferry, but it was only 3ish hours away to begin with and the pickings for boondocking sites got pretty slim, so we opted instead to stay in the same area for both nights.

I began researching possible hikes that were close by and free and soon ran yet again into the almost inescapable reality of Quebec hiking: good hikes always have fees. The hike I *really* wanted to do was Mont Jacques-Cartier: the highest point on the peninsula, fairly prominent, covered in tundra guaranteeing expansive views, and it even boasts a native caribou population! But because of the fees, pet restrictions, and need for reservations (they only just opened up the trails a few days before), we would have to save Cartier for another trip.

But I decided, if we can’t hike that peak, we can at least hike near it. And so we left our seaside park and headed into the mountains to the high Gaspesie. The land we were driving through was part of the Reserve Faunique de Chic-Chocs (or the Chic Choc Animal Reserve), which is also managed by SEPAQ but under slightly looser guidelines than the National Parks themselves – notably no reservations or day use fees.

The roads were comparable to any National Forest roads in the US, if not better, and we soon arrived at the trailhead for Mont des Pics, just East of Mont Jacques-Cartier. After a quick breakfast and making sure Jess and Charlotte were comfortable at the trailhead (neither were in much of a mood for hiking), I set off on the trail. It was clear from the beginning that the trail doesn’t get a ton of use by the tall ferns and spruce that were slowly encroaching on the trail. But it was also VERY clear that the trail does get plenty of use by the resident moose (and maybe caribou?). Of course, that’s just poop speculation. Despite my best efforts to run into wildlife, the elusive moose remained unseen.

The trail was steep but steady to the top where there was a fine lookout facing West towards the bald summit of Jacques-Cartier. After a brief bushwhack to the true peak I returned back the same way where I met up with Charlotte and Jess who were hiding in the van from pesky bugs.

Based on some of the maps I found online, I came up with a plan to go find a lake that we could camp beside, and maybe go kayaking in for the rest of the day. I was unable to find anything on any websites (French or English) to suggest we couldn’t do this, so we followed some of the reserves roads. But every single road eventually deteriorated to the point that I was no longer comfortable taking the van down it. We did end up finding several luxuriously rustic cabins by a lake – no campgrounds or campsites, but no expense barred on these $200/night cabins.

We eventually gave up trying to find a way to a lake and ended up just pulling over, parking, and walking along a high road that offered great views of one of the many valleys before deciding to head back to the village of Mont St. Pierre on the coast. We arrived back on the coast around lunch time and found ample parking next to the beach. I grabbed some ice cream from a local place (with plenty of exchanging of bad English and worse French) and then we set up on the beach for the rest of the day.

The village sits in a very steep valley and was very scenic and there was even a trail up to the top of one of the walls. But naturally there was a $10/person fee to take the trail – which is more insulting when you realize that the tram to the top is only $12!

For all our complaining about small cultural differences, it was a really pleasant and beautiful day. As it got later, we went back down the coast to our little park from the night before and settled down for another peaceful night, and our last night on the Gaspe peninsula.