We backtracked a bit this morning, to visit the Reserve Faunique de Matane – otherwise known as a wildlife preserve. Since it’s supposed to be prime habitat for moose, we figured we HAD to finally see one – and we did!
He (she?) was totally chill, just kind of stared at us and moved on with his life. Meanwhile I was doing a happy dance.
Then we drove a couple of hours through the park, first up to Lac Matane, which was beautiful but freezing – the wind was really ripping off the mountains and lake:
And then we got to do some off-roading. It was just a very steep gravel road, but we did air down the tires and had the truck in low range, so that satisfies Jon’s definition. It was really spectacular driving along the ridge of the mountains and we climbed up above the snow line:
Once we left the Reserve, we drove along the coast for a couple of hours. It was equally beautiful in a totally different way:
Then we took the inland route through the Chic-Choc mountains to Gaspe.
Sadly, no more wildlife after the moose (well, birds, but I don’t really count those), but lots and lots of pretty scenery.