The Glacier Garden, Baie-Comeau, climate changes – The Glacier Garden overview

 

About

The Glacier Garden overview

Unique in the world, only in Baie-Comeau, right in the heart of the Manicouagan-Uapishka Reserve this is the best immersive, interactive and multi-sensory experience in Canada. The Glacier Garden offers visitors a unique encounter with the last ice age, climate changes and the migration of the first people to ever set foot in North America

This world class multimedia show is an interactive, immersive, and multi-sensory experience that allows you to explore a glacier from top to bottom and even gives you a glimpse of the old seas that lie beneath.  Our goal is to inspire you to learn, dream, and see yourself in a new light; to win you over, distract you, and dazzle you; to immortalize the past; and tell a fascinating story.  As we pursue this multifaceted mission, we strive to transform your visit into a unique and fascinating multi-sensory experience.

The Glacier Exploration Station is set up around a multimedia show that is divided into 3 acts composed of spectacular and unique projections.  You will first you admire the “Vastness of the Glaciers”, a 3D-inspired projections that flies you over a glacier that has evolved and been shaped by the Earth’s changing climate throughout history.  You will learn that 20 000 years ago the Northern Hemisphere was, for the most part, covered in a thick layer of ice.  You will then hop in a virtual elevator that will take you 4 km underneath the glacier.  It’s an environment of immersive visuals and stunning sound effects.  There, you will witness the perpetual movement of the ice mass and understand the impact it has had on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River when it melted some 10 000 years ago.  Finally, in the last act, you’ll discover the “Ancient Seas of Québec”.  

Ticket's office opened Sunday till Monday from 8 am till 5 pm




 

20 000 years ago

20 000 years ago, the Laurentian Inlandsis, the planet’s most important ice-cap at the time, covered most of North America. Where Baie-Comeau actually stands, 3 miles of ice were aquashing and sculpting the earth’s crust. From this labours of Hercules were born the reputed rivers, lakes, fjards and bays of the region. Then, 12 000 years ago, the melting of Inlandsis would elevate the global sea level by 100 meters, consequently creating the typical beaches, cliffs and coves of the North Shore.

Praised by the experts of our architectural heritage, this former church now stands as a Glaciers Exploration Station. In this renewed and updated place of worship, visitors are immersed in a world-class multimedia presentation of climatic changes and the last Ice Age. This winner of prestigious national scientific awards immerses the visitors in a multisensorial experience, bringing them on a boreal adventure, 20 000 years under the ice…

Mission and values

The mission of Jardin des glaciers of Baie-Comeau :

  • Develop, manage and promote a Glacier Exploration Center (Station d’exploration glaciaire) focused on the last glacial era and climate change thematic;
  • Give access to an easy to understand information, in various forms ranging from interpretive sign to multimedia techniques, in order to help visitors-explorers to understand how their natural heritage was created;
  • Educate and increase public awareness to develop a sense of pride, belonging and respect related to this heritage.

 

The values of Jardin des glaciers

Base all of our actions and our development in accordance with the principles of the sustainable tourism and the protection of coastal ecosystems and habitats:

  • Act as a leader in the development of a complementary network of services and recreational development in the Baie-Comeau region;
  • Highlight the exceptional natural heritage;
  • Focus on innovation and diversity in order to develop its products and activities;
  • Provide universal access to the attractive features of the Jardin des glaciers in Baie-Comeau;
  • Shine at the local, provincial and international levels in order to highlight the Baie-Comeau business and region;
  • Support all of our interpretation framework on knowledge and data compiled by UQAR researchers;
  • Promote the development of partnerships with businesses or local organizations regarding the marketing of the Manicouagan region;
  • Establish strategic partnerships with the Manicouagan RCM recreational projects.
Prize and special mentions