Visiting Quebec's parks

Quebec is big with plenty of diverse geography and scenery. There are many provincial parks (which we call national parks) and many of them are real jewels of nature.

The Montreal Gazette recently had an article about how anglophone's (which is what we call English language speakers) were not visiting Quebec's parks.

Apparently there was some linguistic resentment. (actually it is my theory that letter-writers are usually already resenting something or something bigtime and the newpaper empowers them to speak out, and we call these people "angry-phones").

But not visiting Quebec parks? How stupid can you be? Quebec has a huge amount of spectacular natural places.

I encourage everyone to visit at least one new Quebec park this spring, summer, fall, and yes, winter too!

Quebec parks are managed by an organization called SEPAQ. This quasi-governmental corporation runs the parks and (if you were to ask me) is perhaps the reason people get turned off from parks, they can be a bit heavy on rules and bureaucratic. That said, I have found only helpful and friendly staff throughout Quebec.

I have made it one of my reasons-for-existence to visit the beautiful places in Quebec. I'm in the middle of my life and there's still lots of great places left to visit in Quebec.

Off the top of my head I'd think of one very big reason why anglo (or any language) Quebecer's seeking nature would do so outside Quebec. There are fewer "Big Mountains" in quebec than across the border in New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

Quebec is both cursed and blessed to have such a large amount of big mountains within two hours to the south. I say Cursed because quebecers head south to get "big adventure."

Anyway, can you really trust anything but your own two eyes?

I suggest you see for yourself: go to the Parcs Québec website and choose a park, and go visit it! Note that Sepaq maintains three things: Quebec Parks, Quebec WIldlife Reserves, and government-owned Tourist Resorts.

Here's the link to the original article "Where are the Anglos?" by David Johnston.

Here's the link to the followup article "Where are anglos? Readers tell why they're not in Quebec"