Gaspe, rising dramatically from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, massive, sheer Percé Rock towers off the tip of Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula like a ship at sea. This rugged, windswept region spans 11,714 square miles and is split into five natural areas. The Coast, Lands End, Chaleur Bay, the Valley, and the Upper Gaspe. It is home to four national parks, including Bonaventure-Island and Perce Rock, the summer nesting home of some 200,000 northern gannets, the continent’s largest colony of gannet seabirds.  “Percé can boast of some 300 bird species or more, which is a good sum for an area so far north.