Day: September 9, 2019

August 18, 2019

Sunday morning, after having walked around Québec City the two previous days, I decided to use my car to drive to two local venues I wanted to see.  First stop, Parc Nationale de la Jacques-Cartier, about a half hour north of the city.

If you’ve been keeping up with my sporadic posting you may recall that in my rage I posted about what happened there in real time when I got back to my Airbnb that afternoon (search for “How about if we call a spade a spade” on the Home Page or use the calendar grid there to go back to August 18, 2019).  Let’s just say things didn’t go well and JohnBoy went somewhat ballistic, then stewed about it for a few hours.

One thing I didn’t address in that post was my attempt to even get to the goofy Park using my new and relatively untested GPS 4.0.  I had looked up the address for the Park before leaving my Airbnb and given the way my new Garmin GPS accepts data I entered what I thought was the correct address.  She took me to a residential area about 10 miles away from the actual entrance.  After I made my last turn before she announced “You have arrived” I encountered this young girl standing in the middle of the road.

(That photo was taken while at a full stop, Shawn).

After I interpreted the sign she was holding I swerved left and ran her over.

JUST KIDDING!  It looks like she would have bounced right back up anyway.

I went back to a Tim Hortons I had passed after getting off the highway exit I had taken and got on their wifi to get a new address.  You can read in my previous post what transpired next.

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After visiting venue 2 for the day (see the next 6 posts immediately following this one) I went back to my Airbnb to calm down.  One thing which helped keep my mind from revisiting the Park experience was getting online to research Canadian Highway Signs to use in future “Sign Language” posts.  I found one of the provincial Driver’s Manuals and combed through just under 2,300 pictures of various signs (152 pages with 15 on a page.  There were only about 7 on the last page, including the pooping dog I posted the day I entered Québec province.  They saved the best for last!).

Now that I’ve posted all my photos from Québec City I will put together another Canadian Sign Language post.  This one will only include signs I have actually seen.  Eventually I will post some of the ones I saw in the Driver’s Manual but didn’t ever see in real life.  I also have some from the US and other parts of the world I have either seen in person or found online.

 

 

August 18, 2019

After my upsetting experience at the National Park which wasn’t a National Park I shifted my attention to the second venue on my agenda for the day.  These are the amazing Montmorency Falls just east of Québec City.  I had actually driven right past this on my way in to town a few days earlier but it was tucked back in behind a mountain so I had no idea it was here.

This place is incredible and totally got my mind off the events of the morning!

There are several things to talk about here and I’ll address each one in a separate post.  First, the falls themselves.  There are three different waterfalls in the photo above, the most obvious carrying the bulk of the water flowing down the Montmorency River.  The main fall is 272 feet high, 99 feet taller than Niagara Falls.

To the left is a smaller fall and to the left of it an even smaller one.

Here is a photo of all three (without the stairway to the right)

And each one individually:

And while I was going through the various shots I took to decide which ones to post I discovered that I inadvertently captured a seagull in flight in one of my closeups:

Better to be lucky than good…

 

 

August 18, 2019

One way to get to the top of Montmorency Falls, just east of Québec City, is to ride a ski-lift-like tram:

Once at the top you may walk over the Montmorency River on a bridge:

And you may also walk across another bridge way off to the right of the falls to where they launch the people who paid to zipline back across the falls.

I didn’t go up there so I don’t know if the top of the stairs connects back to the zipline launch area or not (in which case you could ride the tram up and walk down the stairs).

The cost for the tram:  $ 14.25 CAD one-way or $ 16.75 round-trip.  You must also pay for access to the park (I paid $ 12.50 CAD to park and walk in).  Multiply CAD by roughly .75 to get US dollars.

And before you commit to riding the tram, here was the line (granted it was Sunday afternoon at around 12:45pm local time):

August 18, 2019

One of the ways to get a closer look at the falls is to walk out around the water from the Visitor Center to an observation area near the base and/or climb an incredibly tall set of stairs on the right side which leads up to near where the zipline launches.  I did not do either one.

August 18, 2019

Shortly after I arrived at the Visitor Center for Montmorency Falls, just east of the city, I started taking pictures of the falls.  It wasn’t long before I started seeing people ziplining across the top!

To engage in this fun activity you need to park at the top of the facility and walk across the bridge over the falls to the zipline launch area.  There you, or you and a friend (there are two parallel lines), can fly suspended on a zipline 1,000 feet from one side of the falls to the other, an experience which lasts about 25 seconds.  The cost is a mere $ 31 CAD (plus admission to the facility).  There are videos on YouTube.

No, I absolutely did not.

August 18, 2019

Here are professional photos of the various things you can see and do at Montmorency Falls, just east of Québec City.  These photos were all found inside the Visitor Center:

Looks like a perfect place to celebrate your wedding (like this happy man whose two brides couldn’t agree on the theme they wanted to use).  Also great for birthdays, milestone anniversaries or a maybe a bris (well, maybe not that).

 

August 18, 2019

Another thing which you can do while at Montmorency Falls is catch a train for Charlevoix and other points further northeast.

And after passing the entry gate to park at the lower level Visitor Center there is a “mini me” fall: