Where We Drove
An overview on just the driving portion of our trip
Note: This page is an overview focused primarily on the driving portion of our 2-week "Overland to the Rock" Newfoundland Trip. If you came to this page looking for the general narrative, then you have come to the wrong place. You should go
here instead.
Our "Overland to the Rock" road trip was ambitious: more than 6,000km of road driving in two weeks. Even discounting all of the visiting and hiking we did, that's a lot of distance to cover. This report -- big on pictures and light on narrative -- focuses on the 'road trip' part of things, showing you a lot of pictures you may have already seen but also a number of extra pictures that were taken "along the road". At the end, there's a big combination track-map that shows our entire huge loop, starting and ending in Ottawa.
Day 1 - Friday, June 17. Driving distance: 180 km.
We left on a Friday evening and drove along Ontario's highway 417 to Montreal, where we stayed for the night.
Day 2 - Saturday, June 18. Driving distance: 775 km.
From Montreal, we drove along four-lane Autoroute 20 as far as Quebec City, then crossed over to the north side of the Saint Lawrence.
We followed two-lane highway 138 north-east along the north coast of the Saint Lawrence as far as Baie Comeau. A free ferry crossing must be made at Tadoussac along highway 138.
At Baie Comeau, we turned north onto highway 389. This we followed for some distance before car-camping along the highway.
Day 3 - Sunday, June 19. Driving distance: 235 km.
From our road-side camp-spot along highway 389, we continued north to the Manic 5 dam area, where we stopped for gas at the Motel L'energie.
Above the dam, the highway mostly changes to gravel, and leads on through hilly foothills of the Groulx Mountains to the small service center of Relais Gabriel, where we stopped for lunch. About 20km north of the Relais Gabriel, we stopped and started an overnight backpack in the Monts Groulx.