Views of the Grand River

After leaving L’Archevêque Harbour, I returned to the St Peter’s–Fourchu Road and shortly afterwards turned down the Eastside Grand River Road. This road first passes by a field with views of L’Archevêque Lake; continues across the head of the lake (though there are no views from the road there), marked by a bridge over one of the brooks that flows into it; passes through 2 km (1.2 mi) of coastal forest; and finally arrives at the mouth of the Grand River, where it turns to the northwest, offering the most expansive views of the Grand River I know of as it continues back to the St Peter’s–Fourchu Road in the community of Grand River.

Photo #1, the clearest and best photo of the mouth of the Grand River I have gotten to date, shows it beside the drumlin seen previously from L’Archevêque Beach. Although the Grand River itself is quite wide just above its mouth, at the point where it enters the ocean, it, like so many other rivers on the Atlantic coast, is mostly blocked by cobblestones and sand pushed across it by the action of the ocean’s winds and waves, and is kept open only by the force of a very strong current flowing through a very narrow channel. Although the telephoto lens makes it seem far shorter, from where I was standing to the mouth of the river is a distance of some 1.3 km (0.8 mi). Notice the deciduous tree at the left of the photo, an unusual individual so close to the coast, doubtless planted by a nearby resident. The waves continue to crash into the shore, but have lost much of their morning’s vigour.

Photo #2, taken from 1.3 km (0.8 mi) upriver, looks back towards the mouth of the Grand River and gives a much better view of much of the cobblestone and sand berm that closes off the Grand River from the ocean; the actual mouth runs, as seen in photo #1, along the side of the drumlin and is far narrower than the wide river seen here. As can be seen in its reflection in the waters in the foreground, the sky inland had not opened up anywhere near to the extent that it had out over the ocean.

Photo #3, taken at the same point as photo #2, looks at the banks of the river at this point, where the fall colours are seen only in the grasses and the occasional deciduous tree that has infiltrated its way into the stand of evergreens where trees destroyed by the spruce bark beetle have opened up some space for it to grow; the bushes in the foreground remain defiantly in their summer greens. The placid waters of the river reflect the vegetation growing along its banks, making this a very peaceful spot indeed.