Hiking – The Destinators

Jacques Cartier National Park

Jacques Cartier National Park was created in 1981. Like other national parks around the world, its raison d’être (we’re in Quebec…) was to protect the natural resources of the region while balancing access and recreation. Although the entirety of the river is over 160 km/100 mi long, the area protected by the national park features a 54-km /34-mi stretch of a magnificent glacial gorge that is 550 m /1,800 feet deep. Water sports – canoeing, kayaking, tubing, and fishing – are top of mind at Jacques Cartier. There are also 100 km/ 62 mi of hiking trails throughout the park.

We’ve been confused before about national parks in Canada, particularly in the province of Quebec, because all but 2 of the national parks in Quebec are under the umbrella of SÉPAQ, a provincial organization that operates 23 national parks in Quebec, including Parc National du Jacques-Cartier and Parc National de la Gaspésie, among others. Huh? Inquiring minds…

Gaspesie National Park, deux

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!

PEI’s west coast

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.

Fundy National Park

The Bay of Fundy from the high point of the plateau near Rossiter Hill

Established in 1948, Fundy National Park was New Brunswick’s first national park. Fundy is focused on protecting a sample of the Maritime Acadian Highlands region of Canada. It’s well known for its dramatic tides, rugged coastline, deep river valleys within the rolling highlands, being at the transition between the mostly deciduous Acadian forest and strictly coniferous boreal forest. Also, waterfalls. Lots of waterfalls.

People only started to settle the area now comprising the national park in the 1820’s, mostly because it was not a particularly inviting place to live. Growing food was tough with poor soil, short and cool summers, and long harsh winters. However, trees grew well in this environment so logging and lumbering became the predominant industries. The best easily accessible trees most sought for shipbuilding were soon depleted, pollution of the rivers contributed to a decline of fish that spawned there. Fewer wooden boats were being built, and as technology changed the boats used more steel and less wood, further reducing demand for lumber and causing the decline of logging and lumbering in the area in the 1920’s. Fundy National Park has made restoring the ecosystem after a century of damage from logging and dams a priority.

The Edge of Fundy, part 2 – Chignecto Bay

Although we were still on the shore of the Minas Basin, our first interpretive centre/museum stop heading north was all about… dinosaurs? Ok, yes – and the tides that help to uncover their fossils. The Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro has close ties to the Joggins Fossil Cliffs of Chinecto Bay (both are UNESCO World Heritage Centres), so let’s just start there.

The North Coast of Western Nova Scotia

I’ve always had a fascination with travel and for the past 20 or 30 years (give or take a few) whenever Doug or I learned of an interesting place to visit we put a pushpin on an electronic map. (It actually started with a little silver bucket with small pieces of paper and a pen on the bookshelf in our living room – our ‘Bucket List’ bucket – evolving from bookshelf to computer to The Cloud, but the concept still holds.) (We also keep track of the source of each so that friends who made the recommendations receive proper attribution.) Anyhow, as we got close to retiring those e-pushpins were nearly out of control. We’ve now spent a good part of the last 12 years reining things in, tracking and checking off the locations, marking some for a possible revisit, thanking the folks who sent us somewhere, and learning effective strategies to navigate our pushpin map.

So, here we are in Nova Scotia.

Death Valley National Park

We’d really wanted to see Death Valley National Park on this trip – that was right up at the top of our list of reasons for undertaking this repeat visit across the country. Once again, due to the government shutdown we didn’t quite know what to expect, and up-to-date information was hard to find. However, given our recent experience at Joshua Tree, and considering that from Bakersfield we were less than 3 hours from the park, we headed over to check it out. And once again, we were pleasantly surprised! The Death Valley Natural History Association is a non-profit that supports all of the goals of DVNP. They are funding park staff salaries during the shutdown, and the park was nearly fully open! And most of the closures were due to planned improvements or repairs to flood-damaged roads, unrelated to the current budget issues. Our heartfelt thanks to the DVNHA and all of the staff we met in the visitor center and campground for enabling us to have an amazing visit in Death Valley

Joshua Tree National Park

We really wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park as we head east. We didn’t know what to expect with the government shut down, and in this case we were pleasantly surprised. With the help of many volunteers and paid staff from the Joshua Tree National Park Association, a non-profit partner that provides support to JTNP to meet all of its goals, and a skeleton crew of National Park Service staff, the entire park was open and almost fully operational. We made sure to thank all of the volunteers and staff for their time and effort so that we could visit this wonderful place. Several thanked us back for having come despite the shutdown.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO

On my cross-country bike trip in 1983, I stopped in Morrison, CO. A local suggested I check out the Red Rocks Amphitheatre – a natural outdoor theatre that had been enhanced and turned into a performance venue. Although there was no show there that day/evening, it sounded like it might be a cool place to see, so I biked up to the entrance. I was in awe of this performance space tucked in between giant red rocks, surrounded by such stunning views! I spent the rest of the day hiking in and around the theatre.

Had there been a show, it would likely not have fit into my bike-bum’s budget. Sigh. Coming back someday to see a show was one of the first official items on my shiny new bucket list. It only took me 42 years to check it off!

Everglades National Park

Slash pine ridges along the saw grass prairie of the Shark River Slough

Although we were glad to help my mom through her first-ever experience with surgery (at age 91!), we had to defer the latter 2/3rds of our planned southwest adventure. By the time my mom was stable (which happened very quickly, given the possibilities), there was no longer enough time to get back to any of those southwest plans. But we didn’t really need to rush home. Could we find a different adventure? What if we had planned a trip to the southeast… Is there something we would explore in Florida that we haven’t yet visited on our many family visits to Melbourne? This was a no-brainer – Everglades National Park!