Miguasha National Park and the Chaleur Bay coast: fish fossils in the morning, shallow beaches by afternoon

We woke up at Château Bahia and drove to Miguasha. In the morning we stopped at the fossil park, and in the afternoon at three beaches along the Chaleur Bay shore.

The castle-like place where we spent the first night is Auberge du Château Bahia (Trip.com).

Miguasha National Park: fossils from when fish moved onto land

There are spots near Montreal where fossils turn up, and that got me looking into fossil museums and national parks. That’s how I found Miguasha. It was a 15-minute drive from where we stayed. The cliffs at the mouth of the Restigouche River hold fish and plant fossils from the Devonian period, 380 million years ago, and the site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999. So many of the fossils show fish making the move from water to land that the park is described as a showcase of the "Age of Fishes" (Tourisme Gaspésie). The fossils in the cliff first became known in 1842 (SÉPAQ, submission to UNESCO).

A guided tour down to the fossil cliffs

Around 10 a.m. we joined a guided tour at the visitor center, using our SÉPAQ annual pass to get in. The path went through the woods, then down a set of stairs to the shore, where a cliff of stacked gray rock layers ran along the water. The guide picked up stones from the foot of the cliff and explained how the fossils come out of them. Our kid was given a small fossil activity kit.

Leave fossils and rocks where they are Miguasha is both a SÉPAQ national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so you can’t take fossils or even a single stone. If you find a fossil, leave it in place and tell a staff member.

A trail also continues alongside the cliff. This time we stuck to the shore and the exhibit hall and only looked at the trail from its entrance.

On the way back up from the shore, an outdoor table in front of the visitor center held a display introducing Miguasha’s fossil fish like Wild West "Wanted" posters. It’s aimed at families and kids.

The indoor exhibit hall

We went into the exhibit hall around 11:20 a.m. Every wall had fish fossils still set in their slabs of stone.

At a workbench on one side of the hall, a staff member brought out fossils to show our kid and explained them. Then we passed a model of an ancient fish with a head as hard as armor.

Deeper in the hall is a room devoted to a complete specimen of Elpistostege (Elpistostege watsoni) found here. It’s considered an intermediate step between fish and four-legged animals. In 2010 an intact specimen, 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in) from head to tail, came out of this cliff, and it was published in the scientific journal Nature in 2020. Inside its pectoral fin is a row of bones resembling the bones of a human arm and fingers, which is why it was presented as a fossil that shows where the hand came from (Flinders University).

There’s also a scavenger hunt for kids, the "Elpi Rally," and a sand play area. Between the exhibit and the tour, we spent close to two hours.

The three-day Gaspé tour from Montreal (KKday) follows the Chaleur Bay coast but doesn’t stop at Miguasha.

Carleton-sur-Mer: seafood poutine

About 15 minutes east of Miguasha is Carleton-sur-Mer (Carleton-sur-Mer), a town between a sandbar on the sea side and Mont Saint-Joseph. For lunch we bought one seafood poutine at the fish shop Poissonnerie Carleton (Poissonnerie Carleton). This one was poutine with seafood in a cream sauce.

We ate a quick lunch at a table by the water, then walked along the shore. Small sailboats had been pulled up onto the sand.

Maria: green seaweed like troll hair

At Plage des Goélands in Maria, the water was shallow enough that other people were wading around too. Green seaweed clung to the rocks under the water. It looked like the green hair on the troll dolls from the animated movies, which struck us as odd. It seemed to be some kind of fine, threadlike green seaweed.

A large picture-frame sculpture stands on the beach promenade, framing the view of the sea. You can step inside it for a photo.

Paspébiac: buying mackerel tackle

Leaving Maria on Route 132, we drove past wide tidal flats the falling water had left exposed beside the road.

Paspébiac is a little over an hour east of Maria. There was a Canadian Tire (a Canadian chain that sells hardware and outdoor gear) in a strip mall on the main road, so we stopped. Mackerel fishing was the goal of this trip, so we bought our tackle here. One wall was hung full of mackerel rigs, several hooks on a single line. Buying rigs like these before you go saves time once you’re there.

Also for mackerel: metal jigs (Amazon)

Port-Daniel: shallow water between sandbars

Port-Daniel (officially Port-Daniel–Gascons today) is a village about 40 minutes east of Paspébiac, just west of Chandler. A long sandbar runs along the inner part of the bay. The water was so shallow that we stopped out of curiosity and ended up wading for a good while. Small clams and fish showed through the clear water. When we picked up a blue mussel shell at the water’s edge, a tiny shrimp was living inside it. We looked for a moment, then put it straight back in the water.

Plage des Beaux Sables: a fine-sand beach

Plage des Beaux Sables sits on the Newport side of the town of Chandler. The name means "beach of beautiful sand," and we went mostly to see how beautiful it would turn out to be. Much of the Gaspésie coast is pebbles, so a wide stretch of fine, reddish sand is rare here. From the path on the hill above, the bay curves wide beyond bushes of pink flowers. On the beach were red chairs, a lifeguard tower and straw parasols.

From the beach we went into Chandler for an early dinner at A&W. Since this was a fishing trip, our kid picked the fishing figure from the summer-only toy lineup.

Good to know

Miguasha National Park

Park information as of October 28, 2026, from SÉPAQ Miguasha and Tourisme Gaspésie.

How the three beaches differ

FAQ

Is Miguasha good for kids?

The guided tour takes you down to the cliffs on the shore to see the fossil-bearing rock up close, and the indoor museum has a treasure hunt for kids. Our kid came home with a small fossil kit.

Can you take fossils home from Miguasha?

No. SÉPAQ park rules apply.

Recap

In the morning we looked at 380-million-year-old fish fossils; in the afternoon we walked the shallow waters of Chaleur Bay, one beach after another. We had dinner at A&W in Chandler, then drove on to our lodging near Percé.

Location and getting there

On the map below, 1 is Miguasha, 2 is Carleton-sur-Mer and 3 is Port-Daniel.

Lines are simplified and don’t follow the actual roads.

What we needed for this trip

Gear

Bookings

Sources

• SÉPAQ: Miguasha National Park
• Tourisme Gaspésie: Miguasha National Park
• Sortir au Québec: Plage des Beaux Sables
• Le Routard: Maria (in French)