Park of Bonaventure Island

Park of Island of Bonaventure and Rock Perce

Island of Bonaventure and Rock Perce National Park is located in the Gaspesie region.

This park is a one of the most interesting destinations in Quebec for those who’d like to spend their holidays, observing Quebec’s generous nature.

This national park includes the Island of Bonaventure and well-known Rock Perce (Rocher Perce en French) – an enormous long butte of 470-metres long rising out of the sea.

The Bonaventure Island is home to colonies of a few species of birds, mostly of Northern gannets, whose local colony is the largest on the American continent. Moreover, guests can admire thousand of other birds at the Rock Perce and the Bonaventure Island you to see how thousands of birds and observe their everyday life. Bird-watching here is a fun-filled activity. Visitors can watch birds since the beginning of May till December.

The territory of the National park of the Bonaventure Island and Rock Perce benefits from an exceptional microclimate, appreciated by hikers, both on the trails and the pebble or fine sand beaches bordered by the dizzying red cliffs, small coves and rocky capes. Indeed, the national Park of Bonaventure Island and Rock Perce is an enchanting site which belongs to the geological heritage of Gaspésie and Quebec, made of conglomerate, siltstone and sandstone and more than 300 millions years old (may be, 400 millions years).

Other than watching birds and animals, tourists can walk through the fields of wildflowers, admire the ancestral houses dispersed randomly over the territory or just walk by the sea shore…

The Bonaventure Island is 3,5 km wide, with cliffs over 90 metres high. As to Rock Perce, its shoreline stretches 200 metres in length, the hole inside the rock is 20 metres high and its obelisk stands 45 metres high. Every year, the rock Perce loses 300 tonnes of rock and if men do nothing, so nothing will be left of the rock in about 15 thousand years. It is 375 millions years old and made of limestone with calcite veining. The rock Perce holds around 150 species of fossils, namely brachiopods, trilobites, Percé dalminites, marine worms, corals and other.

Curiously, Samuel de Champlain describes the rock with one arch, in 1603, just like now. But in 1760, during the Seven Years’ war, a British officer drew a picture of the Rock Perce where we see double arches. We know for sure the one of the arches collapsed in 1845.

So, it seems, the appearance of the Rock Perce changes from time to time.

Forillon National Park of Canada is located near the Rock Perce.