After an easy trip, we settled in to Rivière du-Loup (Wolf’s River) quite easily.  This is a small town in a spectacular location. Right on a portion of the St Lawrence River where the fresh and salt waters meet. 

The little town is a beautiful.

And the location means they have fantastic fresh seafood restaurants and, because of its position on the river, some of the most amazing sunsets we’ve ever seen.  Also, another raging Parc des Chutes (the Sentier waterfall).

The basin was complete with rainbow... 

Our first day was complete with a lovely sunset...a harbringer of things to come.

The next day, locals told us whale watching is a MUST here because this is where salt water from the ocean and and fresh water from the river meet.  We decided to go out and frankly we didn’t have big expectations.  We were so surprised!   We actually saw the different waters during our trip!

The trip began with a dolphin pod escort.  Next we me a large pod of seals.  Native tribes once called them sea wolves so they may have been the source of the name of the area.

We got some fun shots--and a bit of history-- of the lovely Île Verte Lighthouse as we made our way out into the main channel. 

 The island lighthouse has had a large role in Quebec’s maritime history beginning as an encampment for Canada’s First Nations (native Indians).  Later the French used it to to monitor their fleet, then as a hub to escort trans-Atlantic ships to Quebec City.  In the War of 1812, the British used it to watch for incursions from the American fleet.  And in WWII, troops stationed on the island assisted in securing the St. Lawrence and the Gulf from over 20 German U-boat attacks on Allied ships. Lighthouse keepers now help control poaching and smuggling. 

Past the lighthouse, we saw large and small boats everywhere watching 20-30 whales.   Boat captains were very careful...the close encounters were when whales came up to us!

From Minke to Right Whales, to Humpback, these leviathans were spouting and diving—showing us their whale tails –sometime two or three at a time.

 Where we could see the line of fresh and salt waters meeting, right in the middle of all the whale activity, the crew explained the krill are especially fond of this mix of waters.  And as we all know, whales love to eat krill.

Back on shore, we saw the beginnings of another beautiful sunset.

As we said, the seafood was outstanding.  We stopped in Restaurant Le Boucanneux for a huge mixed seafood feast.  Jim could hardly move when he was done.

 We we were treated to a remarkable sunset in the process.  I jumped up from the table to catch this shot! It doesn’t get any better than this!

After dinner, we took night pictures of the town of Rivière du-Loup across the bay.  We’ll be sorry to leave here tomorrow. 

This is a place we definitely will go out of our way to come back to visit!  Across from our RV camp was Noel au Chateau, a kids castle with everything Christmas— quite spectacucar at night.

Next?  We’re off to Prince Edward Island, the land of Anne of Green Gables…and much more!