Belvedere Baie St-Pancrace / Franquelin
Hiking the Belvedere Baie St-Pancrace Trail | Whale Watching, Camping, and Hiking in Franquelin, QC | Driving the Côte-Nord | July 2024
This morning, we packed up and continued our drive North along the Côte-Nord. We were still undecided as to how far North we wanted to drive before turning around, but I knew of a couple easier hikes right off the highway that sounded fun, so we made one of those our goal for today.
The hike is called Belvedere Baie St-Pancrace, and is located along QC-138 North of Baie-Comeau. When looking through all the guides we had picked up from visitor centers and all we had seen online, this seemed to be the only free, legitimate hike that we could do. While driving there, we passed through plenty of forested land and beautiful scenery, and wondered what else was out there that we were missing. Maybe if we lived here and understood the land and rules better, we would know how to hike and explore more, but since we were just visiting we stuck to the places that we knew we were welcome.
We arrived at the small lot off the side of the highway, and found a fair amount of other cars here — which made sense because it was a beautiful, sunny Sunday, and this was seemingly the only hike around! We walked the boardwalk up to the first lookout over the inlet. From here, there were steep steps to continue on the hike, but Charlotte wasn’t interested, so Curtis and I took turns. Once I left the initial boardwalk and lookout, it was much less busy, and the views got even better. I continued walking up stairs and following the narrow trail until I came to a lookout for a lake. As I was up there, big clouds started rolling in, obscuring the view a little but giving the area a cool, foggy look.
Next, we continued driving up to the village of Franquelin. There was another lookout hike here, but it was getting pretty hot under the afternoon sun and all Charlotte wanted to do was sunbathe. So we decided to save the hike for the next morning, and instead found a place to hang out and stay for the night. Thanks to a misplaced location pin on iOverlander and bad Google directions, we ended up on a sketchy 4×4 road and had to do a multi-point turn around beside a treacherous cliff. But after escaping that safely and finding the right way, we found the road to be much easier to drive and soon found a large clearing where we were on our own.
We set up the space with a spot for Charlotte to relax, then prepared to have lunch, when all of a sudden we heard a loud, distinct noise coming from the direction of the St. Lawrence, which was right next to us but obscured by trees. Curtis knew right away what it was: WHALES! We dropped everything to find a lookout, and ended up scrambling down a narrow path off the 4×4 road to get to the water’s edge. Sure enough, there they were: at least 2 whales, playing around near the shore. Based on all the information we could gather, we think they were minke whales — during whale season (May-September) the St. Lawrence is home to 13 different species of whales. We never got a full breach, but we still stood there for a long time watching their fins appear here and there. I had said many times throughout this trip that my main goal was to see whales, so now that it finally happened, I knew I could be content with all we had accomplished here! Unfortunately, wildlife photography is difficult, especially for fleeting glimpses of fins, so we don’t have any good pictures to share (plenty of bad ones though).
We spent the rest of the day whale watching, hanging out with Charlie, and discussing what the rest of our trip should look like. We didn’t really have the desire to drive the entirety of 138 — despite it being a beautiful drive and an overall relaxing experience, there wasn’t enough variety or things to do along the way that we felt would justify adding that many more miles to the van and hours of driving (we were still 7 hours and over 600 kilometers from the town of Kegashka at the end of the road). We did briefly contemplate driving 8 hours North on 389 just to cross the border into Labrador, and while it would have been fun just to say we’d been to all 10 provinces of Canada, we realized it was a bigger undertaking than what we wanted to do, and once again agreed that someday, we’ll dedicate a trip to thoroughly visiting this province. We ultimately decided that this would be our turn around point, and that we would spend one more week enjoying the beauty of Quebec before returning to the states.
The next morning, we started our day off with a short hike to a lookout over the town of Franquelin. The official parking for this hike is a couple blocks away at a community center, which was a bit difficult to figure out in French. But once we figured out where to park, we slowly made our way over to the trail and started on the hike. However, Charlotte decided she wasn’t interested in hiking only a few hundred feet into the walk. Normally I’m okay with staying behind, letting her sniff and take her time while Curtis hikes to the top (or we take turns, if I’m interested) but the mosquitoes were far too bad for me to want to stand around in the woods. And so I let Curtis go on, and directed Charlotte back down to the trailhead where the bugs weren’t so bad and we could go at her pace back to the van. (This is what cemented in our minds that we shouldn’t drive to Labrador — if we were going to make that effort, we at least wanted to be able to hike together!)
Once Curtis returned, we got back on the road to begin our return trip. We already knew exactly where we wanted to stay tonight: On our way up, we had driven by a rest stop where overnight parking was allowed that looked like it would be a fun place to hang around. Similar to the rest stop from earlier, it was right on the coast with hiking, kayaking, and rock hopping opportunities. What made it unique was that it had giant dinosaur statues scattered around. Therefore, we called this spot “dinosaur land.” The overnight parking area is removed from the road, and beside a large lot for vans and RVs to camp, there are also tent pads near the lot, and a few that you can hike to. There are also bathrooms with showers, which we took full advantage of! We enjoyed spending the afternoon working and hanging out in the shade, going for short walks, and wandering out to the point. The area ended up being pretty busy, but we can’t complain when it’s a free and scenic spot, and would definitely return whenever the day comes that we decide to drive to Labrador.
The next day, we drove back to Les Escoumins and returned to the campground where we had stayed on our first night on the Côte-Nord. We arrived mid-afternoon and there were several spots available, so we picked one that was in a corner and more secluded and made ourselves “at home” for the next 2 nights. Curtis had some meetings and work to get done, so this was a great spot to stay, relax, and also be productive, and it was open enough that we had enough solar power for our battery to charge without needing to drive anywhere. The downside of this area is that since it’s free and so close to town, it gets super busy, with people doubling up on sites and parking wherever they can fit their rigs. But again, we won’t complain because it’s free, and it was just what we needed at that time. And after 2 rejuvenating days here, we were ready to continue on our drive South, heading towards Quebec City!
