Anniversary Weekend: Sunday

On day two of this fine long weekend, we decided to head across the river into Quebec and Gatineau Park, or Parc de la Gatineau: "a wedge of land measuring 361 square kilometres to the northwest of Canada’s Capital Region. In the Park, the NCC protects plants and animals and manages facilities and trails so that the public may enjoy outdoor activities in every season." The kids took us there seven years ago on one of our visits, before they were married and before we moved here. The picture that comes up when I post a comment was taken there. I've stuck with that picture for a long time; it seems to be part of this blog. I change my Facebook picture often but not my blog picture.

The map shows the park and our route. We drove into Ottawa and crossed into Quebec via the Champlain Bridge and despite several wrong turns ended up in Chelsea, the park entrance that has a visitors centre (arrows 1 - 3).



We drove around that section of the park, headed to several lookouts and had a picnic lunch at one of them. It wasn't terribly relaxing, especially for Cuppa, as caterpillars kept dropping onto our table from the overhanging branches. However, I did take this picture looking over the edge of the escarpment, southwest toward the Ottawa River. The Gatineau Hills are an upraised block of the Canadian Shield. Over the eons, the block has worn down and the valley has been raised by sediments, but it remains a fine outlook.



Adventurous people could walk down part of the way, but this is as far as Cuppa and I went as we weren't prepared for the kind of hiking that would lie beyond this fine entrance way. The granitic-type rock comes from the local area.



Afterward we went exploring. We headed north to Wakefield and then west along the top of the park where the scenery looked much like it does below (arrows 4 & 5).



We were able to cut through a pretty isolated and not highly travelled part of the park (arrow 6) and head to Quyon (arrow 7) where we took the ferry back into Ontario (arrows 7 & 8). At that point, we were in familiar territory and only 3/4 of an hour from home.



It was a good day but not up to the serendipitous excitement of the previous day's lunch and concert in the woods.