Exploring central Quebec’s natural beauty and racing legacy in a 2022 Nissan Pathfinder

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When I’m asked if I want to go to the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, the circumstances don’t matter: I’m already saying yes before the question is finished.

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I’ve only been three times, which is a paltry figure in comparison to its 50-plus year history, but it’s a goal of mine to get that number much higher.

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Exploring central Quebec’s natural beauty and racing legacy in a 2022 Nissan Pathfinder Back to video

In a typical year, the program at the venerated event features the Canada-based NASCAR Pinty’s Series, Nissan Sentra Cup, Canadian Touring Car Championship, and open-wheel Formula 1600, among other classes. As local in nature as it may be, the continent’s longest-running street course race produces a weekend that’s truly world-class from start to finish.

There are many ways to experience it too, from downtown hotels to camping in an RV — or even in a tent on the circuit grounds. The 2021 edition was a little unusual in that attendees were restricted in their movement and the city’s party atmosphere was toned down, but in an average year the weekend would be punctuated with shoulder-to-shoulder fans in the paddock, the bustling strip of restaurants on Rue des Forges, and a dazzling Saturday evening fireworks display. Any time there’s a chance to experience this race weekend, it’s truly not to be missed.

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But if you’re like me and like to make the most of the klicks you put on your odometer, you might wonder whether there’s anything else noteworthy you can do while paying the City of Three Rivers a visit. This August, my daughter and I turned this race weekend into a full-blown road trip, spending an entire week in a 2022 Nissan Pathfinder Platinum and taking in the many beautiful and fascinating sites threaded together by the Saint-Maurice River, which defines the history and geography of central Quebec.

2022 Nissan Pathfinder Platinum

When I say the all-new, fifth-generation 2022 Nissan Pathfinder was our home base for this trip, I mean that in every possible context: we made two single-day 700-kilometre runs in it, used it for local day trips, and even slept in it in the evenings while we were camping.

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“Wait — you slept in your car?”

We sure did, and it was fabulous. I spent much of my early 20s sleeping on the ground in tents and have long been over dealing with rocks poking into mattresses, baking in the sun or soaking in the rain, and battling dirt and mildew. Lately, my preferred alternative has been to tow a small trailer, which is great: it keeps us dry and has a built-in kitchen and air conditioner, and all of the creature comforts we need. But after camping in the back of the Pathfinder for three nights, my daughter and I agreed that for shorter durations, we like this method even better than the trailer. And although we’re only two, we had enough space that a family of four could get away with this just as easily if two people slept in a tent. Plus, given that the Pathfinder’s fuel use averaged 9.8 L/100 km for the week — roughly half of what I’d typically burn while towing the trailer — I’m also delighted with how much gas (read: money) we saved as prices approach $1.40 per litre in this part of the country.

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There are a few tricks to doing this comfortably, though; I’ll share that advice in a separate article coming soon.

As for the Pathfinder, after quite literally living in it for a week, we came away with very few complaints. The seats remain very comfortable over longer trips, and the removable second-row centre console and pair of cupholders in the door armrests helped keep my daughter organized.

My quibbles? This is my first long drive using Nissan’s ProPILOT Assist highway drive assist technology, and so far I don’t get along with it very well. There’s a lot of binging and bonging, and I find myself fighting with the lane-keeping and curve-navigating features rather than getting comfortable with them. I’d be just as happy with traditional adaptive cruise control. But I’m an old-school driver who enjoys going long distances, so I concede I might be the exception rather than the rule here.

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Also, I finally figured out why I don’t like the graphics on Nissan’s digital instrument cluster: there’s not enough contrast between the background colour and the numbers, which makes them hard to read. I found I used the Platinum’s head-up display more often anyway, which includes a traffic sign recognition feature that’s helpful in unfamiliar areas. Finally, I wanted the seat heaters to get a little warmer. That’s it, really. Everything else about how the new Pathfinder worked on this trip was a pleasure, and I’d be more than happy to head out with it on adventures again.

La Mauricie National Park, a jewel of central Quebec

The centrepiece of the early part of our week was La Mauricie National Park, located roughly an hour north of Trois-Rivières.

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If you look at this park on a map, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be anything special. It’s more than 500 square kilometres of land suspended north of where most major highways end, flanked to the east by the Saint-Maurice River, and with little in the way of obvious distinctive features.

This is a good thing: it leaves this gem of a park relatively undiscovered, to be enjoyed by those who will venture out to appreciate it. La Mauricie National Park is paradise for hikers and paddlers, with trails running through roughly 150 lakes dotted across boreal forest — which is the best forest, by the way, and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed its sweet scent of birch and pine until I returned after two summers away.

Someday I’ll visit again for the full-day paddle and portage route to the Chutes Waber in the park’s northwest, and to complete the Deux-Criques trail, which is a challenging 17-kilometre, full-day hike that’s said to be one of the most beautiful in Quebec.

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Although my daughter isn’t feeling up to this level quite yet, the park still left us plenty to do. Instead, we completed two shorter hikes: la Familiale, which uses activities to take young visitors in search of the park’s friendly forest creature of legend, the Morix; and a one-hour, two-kilometre loop in the park’s Shawenegan sector called Les Cascades. This translates to “the waterfalls,” a name that doesn’t prepare you for the cascading drop the water makes along steps in the multicoloured rock, leaving behind a series of small pools suitable for swimming. (Fair warning: we encountered a couple of fairly sizeable leeches, which turned my daughter off, though I’m not sure they were truly much of a threat.) We also took advantage of the park’s ample watercraft rentals to paddle a double kayak along a small portion of Lac Wapizagonke, which stretches nine kilometres in total.

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But driving is my favourite pastime, and so I favoured the park’s road, which twists through more than 60 kilometres of incredible views across hilly and forested landscapes, dotted by rivers and lakes that can be viewed from plenty of easily-accessible lookout points. It’s a wonderfully scenic and dynamic drive that’s well worth the price of admission on its own.

Plus, there’s next to zero light pollution this far north, which means that the stargazing is phenomenal. Our mid-August timing was perfect to a tee. The mosquitoes weren’t terrible at all — which shocked me enough that I asked the park staff about it, who told me that biting bugs make life miserable in late June through much of July, but they ease up significantly later in the summer — and we arrived just in time for the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower, which meant the sky put on a spectacular show.

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We came here to check a box off a list and pick up a medal for my daughter from Parks Canada’s Xplorers program, which is designed to encourage kids and their families to explore our national parks and historic sites. But I left feeling like I’d uncovered a carefully hidden secret, and I already can’t wait to go back.

Shawinigan, city of energy

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Continuing south from the park toward Trois-Rivières, the next major stop is the city of Shawinigan. Power generation put this city on the map, and today it remains home to Quebec’s oldest operating hydro generating station.

Centred around this, you’ll find the Cité de l’Énergie , a series of attractions relating to the station and the waterfalls on the Saint-Maurice River from which the city once took its name. The site has a motion theatre with science-related films that we decided to skip for a variety of reasons, but we enjoyed our trip up the Hydro-Québec tower for 360-degree views of the city. A museum dedicated to former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, a Shawinigan native, is also on this site, filled with information about his time in office and a fascinating collection of the hundreds of gifts he received from visiting heads of state. Though the trail from the municipal parking lot is a little treacherous, it’s also possible to see the falls themselves from ground level when they’re flowing through the dam.

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Those who have kids along will enjoy the side trip to Ranch Dupont , a rural site just a few minutes from downtown Shawinigan that houses everything from common farm animals to exotic and endangered species. The gift shop sells bags of feed at the entrance that kids can take with them to offer to some of the friendlier animals throughout the park.

Les Forges du Saint-Maurice, a trial by fire

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Tracing the Saint-Maurice River further south, the site of Canada’s first industrial community is based roughly halfway between Shawinigan and downtown Trois-Rivières. Les Forges du Saint-Maurice National Historic Site protects several of the structures and archaeological remains of the ironworks that operated here for 150 years in the 18th and 19th centuries, plus much more: this place harbours many legends that have endured through time. This year, as the site redesigns its programming through the pandemic, those legends are being interpreted and retold by one of Quebec’s most beloved storytellers, Fred Pellerin.

Quebecers don’t need to be told who Fred Pellerin is and why this audio tour is wonderful, but for those who don’t understand French, it may be a harder sell. We chose to experience it with the English translation provided in booklet form, and we didn’t have any trouble getting pulled into the captivating story, from repeat appearances by a strange cat to the legend of how a chimney lost one of its supports in a battle with the devil himself. My daughter also enjoyed the interactive Trial by Fire exhibit, which uses motion sensing technology to demonstrate how the various tools of the forgery were used by its workers.

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Destinations for the journey

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Trois-Rivières is roughly halfway between the cities of Montreal and Quebec City, which makes either of these locations obvious stopover points for visitors coming from either direction. We came from the west, which led to a couple of extra items being added to our itinerary.

Any visitor to the Grand Prix must stop in Berthierville, on the north shore of the St-Lawrence approximately 45 minutes west of Trois-Rivières, to visit the Musée Gilles-Villeneuve . This small museum is found just off Autoroute 40 and includes an impressive gift shop attached to a warehouse-like facility with displays honouring the life and times of one of Formula 1’s greatest racers. The content covers his early success in snowmobile racing and formula cars before transitioning into the big time, first with McLaren and later through his storied connection with Enzo Ferrari. Several historic cars are also on display, some driven by local racers and others by members of the Villeneuve family, including replicas of the cars Gilles’s son Jacques drove to Indianapolis 500 victory and a Formula One World Championship. Although it would benefit from some modernization of its facilities and exhibits, this museum is a must-see for any race fan heading in the direction of Trois-Rivières.

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We also visited Sir Wilfrid Laurier National Historic Site in the village of St-Lin-Laurentides, to the north of Montreal. Truth be told, this wasn’t exactly on our way, and its opening hours of Friday to Sunday made it a little awkward to fit into this itinerary. But it made sense to include this site here as part of our Parks Canada Xplorers journey, and we enjoyed both the visit itself and the pastoral side roads our side trip took us through in Quebec’s Lanaudière region.

The land on which this historic site is based is the same parcel on which Canada’s seventh Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, was born and raised. The house itself was built later, but its brick exterior and gabled roof make it representative of the correct era. The Parks Canada staff here have wonderful stories to tell about Laurier’s life, from his father sending him for English lessons in a nearby Scottish village to the 19th-century love story in which he nearly didn’t get to marry the woman who became his wife. It’s also striking to note some of the small details that indicate this humble home housed a family of privilege in that era, from the birdcage to the wallpaper, and even a simple clock on the wall.

This site celebrates Laurier as the builder of modern Canada and architect of the west, a viewpoint which currently excludes the impact those actions had on Indigenous people as those lands were colonized, though those additions will surely come. For now, those who have a bit of time to spare while spending a weekend in Montreal’s far northeast reaches will find this to be a quick and enjoyable diversion.