The St Lawrence And The Thousand Islands

On Saturday, we decided to follow the St Lawrence seaway and to drive from Ottawa to Gananoque, one of the gateway to the Thousand Islands. The Thousand Islands is an archipelago around the U.S — Canada border, in the St Lawrence river. The total number of islands is said to be 1,793 but some of them are barely rocks above water, while some are home to castles and resorts.

Gananoque is a small Canadian town, with a population of about 5,000. A main street, a clock tower, a few churches and a nice little harbor is about all there is to see. The town was busy with a biker convention (?!) and we stayed away from the crowd (by crowd, I mean, 20 people max.) and hang out by the old locks and the shore.

Gananoque Gananoque, The Locks
Spider Web On The Locks The Shores

The weather was pretty dark but it was hot and hazy. It made the shores look even more untamed…

The Shores The Shores

We then drove to Rockport, a few miles away. A township located by the Thousand Islands bridge, it offers a great view of the islands. And yes, we almost got attacked by a family of hungry ducks.

Ducks Rockport\'s Dock

We took the Thousand Island parkway and crossed the bridge to Hill Island, right by the international border with the USA. The island was very quiet and we took a small gravel road, deep into the forest. A few miles later, I spotted a deer in the wild. We stopped the car and I slowly walked towards it. We stared at each other (well, mostly I was staring, I guess he saw humans before… but I don’t see deers that often!) and I got a chance to take a picture before it escaped. Later on, we spotted something else on the road… yep, a big black snake. I got off the car and walked as close as I could (not afraid of snakes!). Funny enough, the road we were driving on was “the black snake” road, as the sign said!

Deer Spotted In The Woods Snakes Crossing The Road

Back to the entry on the island, I climbed the skydeck to get a better view. You can see the Thousand Islands Bridge below, as well as one of the many islands.

One Of The Islands The Thousand Island Bridge
The St Lawrence Seaway The St Lawrence Seaway
The St Lawrence Seaway The St Lawrence Seaway

About the Author

Zhu

French woman in English Canada. Occasionally: speaks Mandarin or Spanish, bitches about the Canadian weather, writes left-wing rants, gives test to her students so that she can read the paper and have breakfast, speaks of cultural difference or goes backpacking across the world. And enjoys Canada as her new home.

16 Responses to “ The St Lawrence And The Thousand Islands ”

  1. I love the pics.

  2. It looks so pretty there! I love your pictures too.
    I’ve had the dressing from the Thousand Islands. I like it when it’s freshly made, rather than the bottled stuff. I order dressings “on the side”, because restaurants put too much on. A good salad doesn’t need much dressing. I also like bleu cheese and creamy italian. The lighter the dressing, the better.

    Seraphines last great read…Searching for Cloud 9

  3. I actually only heard of the Thousand Islands just a few months ago; I never thought there was a real Thousand Islands in existence. I only thought of them as the salad dressing. Now do you happen to know why the salad dressing was called Thousand Island dressing? Because I am curious how the two are related.

    Linguist-in-Waitings last great read…Pickled Herring is Addictive

  4. Snake…I’d cry if I saw one crawling. Very beautiful pictures. I thought about going to Banff National Park for my honeymoon, but it is so pricey compares going to Europe.

  5. Hi Zhu…..I am a regular visitor of your blog but commenting today. You are amazing blogger & nice photographer. Keep that up! Will keep visiting here :)

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