Qualla: Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Riviere-Malbaie National Park

Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Riviere-Malbaie National Park: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Wilson, CC BY-SA 3.0. Four hundred and fifty million years ago, a meteorite slammed into what is now Quebec's Charlevoix coast, excavating a crater 54 kilometres wide. The impact pulverized bedrock, fractured fault lines, and set in motion the geological forces that would eventually produce the deepest river gorge in eastern North America. Today, the Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Riviere-Malbaie National Park preserves that legacy in vertical rock walls that rise more than 700 metres from the valley floor, ancient cliffs that dwarf everything between here and the Rocky Mountains. The Malbaie River threads through the bottom of this chasm in a long half-arc, its current still carving at Precambrian stone that remembers the collision.

Image: Dr Wilson | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Riviere-Malbaie National Park: A Crater's Gift to the Landscape

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Wilson, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Charlevoix impact structure reshaped the entire region. The shock of the meteorite strike, estimated during the Ordovician period, shattered the bedrock along deep fault lines that rivers later exploited. The Malbaie River found these fractures and cut downward through the La...

Image: Dr Wilson | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Riviere-Malbaie National Park: Where the Log Drivers Walked

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jean-Pierre Guillet, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park's most famous trail carries the name of men who once risked their lives in the gorge below. The Acropole des Draveurs, the Acropolis of the Log Drivers, climbs 800 metres of elevation over 10.5 kilometres to reach the summit ridge. The draveurs were the lumberjacks who f...

Image: Jean-Pierre Guillet | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Riviere-Malbaie National Park: A UNESCO Biosphere at the Heart of Charlevoix

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Wilson, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1988, UNESCO designated the Charlevoix region as a World Biosphere Reserve, and the Hautes-Gorges park became one of its two core protected areas, alongside the neighbouring Grands-Jardins National Park upstream on the Malbaie River. The biosphere reserve recognized Charlevoix...

Image: Dr Wilson | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Riviere-Malbaie National Park: The River's Long Arc

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cantons-de-l'Est, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Malbaie River begins at Petit lac Tristan, a small lake nestled in a marshy mountain valley north of Quebec City. From there it describes a sweeping half-circle that arcs north before curving back south and east toward the St. Lawrence. This unusual course entirely encircles ...

Image: Cantons-de-l'Est | CC BY-SA 4.0