Qualla: La Mauricie National Park

La Mauricie National Park: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Attikamekw called the river that drains this land Tapiskwan Sipi -- the River of the Threaded Needle. The Wyandot knew it as Oquintondili. The Abenaki called it Madobalodenitekw. French colonists eventually settled on Saint-Maurice, naming it after a 17th-century landowner whose wife received the riverbank as a seigneurial grant in 1676. La Mauricie National Park sits where all these names converge, on a plateau of the southern Canadian Shield where 150 lakes collect in the hollows of billion-year-old rock. The forest here is a transition zone, the place where the maples and yellow birches of the south give their last stand before yielding to the boreal spruce and fir that stretch north to Hudson Bay.

Image: LBM1948 | CC BY-SA 4.0

La Mauricie National Park: Where Two Forests Meet

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mathématicien joyeux, CC BY-SA 3.0. Forest covers 93 percent of La Mauricie's territory. The park sits precisely at the northern limit of Quebec's deciduous forest, making it one of the most botanically rich transition zones in eastern Canada. Sugar maples and yellow birches claim the well-drained, sun-facing slope...

Image: Mathématicien joyeux | CC BY-SA 3.0

La Mauricie National Park: Millionaires' Playground

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0. Before it became a national park in 1970, this landscape was carved up by private hunting and fishing clubs. Wealthy Americans discovered the area in the late 19th century, drawn by the abundant game and pristine lakes. The Shawinigan Club opened in 1883, the Laurentian Club in 1...

Image: Cephas | CC BY-SA 3.0

La Mauricie National Park: The Living Canopy

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Denver2017, CC BY-SA 4.0. Moose browse the lakeshores at dawn. Black bears strip berries from the understory in late summer. Beavers engineer the waterways, and northern river otters patrol the streams. The park supports a small population of wood turtles, a species considered endangered in Canada, making...

Image: Denver2017 | CC BY-SA 4.0

La Mauricie National Park: A Landscape Shaped by Water

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0. Every stream and lake in La Mauricie eventually feeds the Saint-Maurice River, which borders the park to the east. The Matawin River traces the western and northern boundaries. The park occupies a plateau that slopes gently from east to west, with all its waterways finding their ...

Image: LBM1948 | CC BY-SA 4.0