This is our second visit to Gaspesie National Park. Our first visit in 2023 was amazing and we knew we’d be back. Well, here we are! Last time we did 3 epic hikes in 3 different regions of the park – Mont Jacques Cartier, Xalibu, and Mont Albert – likely our favorite hike in a North American national park. This time we did one hike, not as spectacular as the others, yet it was still magical!
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Nous étions garés sur un grand parking presque vide de la plage de Brackley, dans le parc national de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard, en train de préparer nos vélos pour visiter les sentiers dans le parc, lorsqu’un autre camping-car, identique au nôtre mais un peu plus récent et beaucoup plus rutilant, s’est garé quelques places plus loin. Nous avons vu un couple commencer à préparer leurs vélos. Bien sûr, nous n’avons pas le choix – il fallait leur dire bonjour…
English version follows, or click here.
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This visit to Caraquet was different from our first visit in 2023. My maternal grandparents and generations of ancestors were born and lived here and I’ve heard about the town since I was a kid. In 2023, we aimed to check out the town. The town is in a pretty location on the Baie des Chaleurs (Bay of Warmth), on a peninsula in northern New Brunswick. We loved it! The arts community, the funky restaurants, the murals, the beaches, the marinas, the bay, the outdoor gathering spots all caught our attention. We (literally) sought out signs of my ancestors and found street signs with the Morais family name.
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As we drove across the beautiful and brilliantly engineered 8-mile-long Confederation Bridge between PEI and the mainland, we were entering PEI with a few time constraints – tickets to a show on 8/8, meetup with friends on 8/14 and don’t visit PEI National Park with its legendary crowds on a weekend – and a list of things we wanted to visit. Oh, and we had forgotten about the Canadian long weekend and so arrived just in time for that. Working up a schedule with all these constraints required a bit of creativity. (Check out PEI on our travel page in you’re interested in just how much creativity…)
There was was only 1 item on our list in the south central part of PEI. However, given our driving routes to work around the constraints we got to explore this area and found a few gems.
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By PEI standards (I wish to stress that this is an important qualifier here), the east side of the island was quiet, laid back, and less touristy. It was also geologically different – again, by PEI standards – hillier, more trees, fewer huge flat farms. According to locals (and backed up by the Potato Museum), we learned that the soil on the west side of the island is perfect for large-scale agriculture, while on the east side… not so much. There are farms, to be sure, however the east is also home to some forestry and a few sawmills. As on the west side, there are lovely red beaches and cliffs along the shore, and lots of lighthouses, along with the agriculture and fish processing.
Continue reading “The east side of PEI”
From the north coast we set off to explore the west coast of PEI. The drive was quite pretty as we passed miles of tidy, colorful potato, corn and wheat fields. Relatively flat with rich red soil, it seems every bit of land that is not used for a house, a church or a music venue is used for agriculture. Taking back roads as much as possible, we also passed through bunches of tiny towns, a handful of big ones, and more of the red coastline’s alternating cliffs and beaches.
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One of Parks Canada’s primary goals is to protect the ecology and culture representing 39 distinct natural regions across the country. Toward this end, Prince Edward Island National Park was established to include some of the most endangered and incredibly beautiful areas of the north coast of PEI. The park consists of three sections, each with controlled access points allowing for public access to these very popular attractions while minimizing stress on the fragile ecosystems that made them so incredible in the first place.
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We’re so glad we had the chance to come back and visit the rest of Nova Scotia. It’s a relatively small province with a lot to offer. We got to know more about the Fundy side where in addition to experiencing the unique natural phenomena related to the world’s greatest tides, we observed and learned about the agriculture – farms, vineyards and orchards – as well as food processing, manufacturing and craft beers. The Atlantic side of Nova Scotia, most favored by early European settlers seeking colonization and fish, has a number of historical remains and reconstructions, battle sites related to this period and the long tradition of fishing, seafood processing, marine shipping and craft beers. And tourism. Nova Scotia does tourism well.
Continue reading “So long, Nova Scotia”
A young folk artist whose musicianship and songwriting skills had gained widespread recognition across Canada by the early 1980s, Stan Rogers was well known and celebrated for his traditional-sounding songs of Atlantic Canada, the Great Lakes and the prairies. Returning home from a festival in Texas in 1983, Stan lost his life in an airplane fire at the age of 33.
About a dozen years later a group of folks got together in Canso, a small and remote fishing town on the south coast of Nova Scotia, where they put on a folk music festival to honor Stan and his music. Fans came, the festival was successful, and it has become an annual event which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
Continue reading “Stan Rogers Folk Festival: Stanfest 2026”