Manic-5 and the Manicouagan Crater

The Daniel Johnson Dam The Largest Multiple Arch Buttress Dam In The World Holding Back A Reservoir That Fills A 214 Million Year Old Meteorite Crater 100km Across, Visible From Orbit As The Eye Of Quebec · Manic-5, Quebec

Two hundred and fourteen million years ago a rock several kilometres across hit what is now the Cote-Nord and left a crater a hundred kilometres wide. Erosion and ice took the rim down, but the ring of low ground around the central uplift filled with water, and from space it reads as a perfect ring of lake around an island - the EYE OF QUEBEC, one of the most recognisable features on earth from orbit. In the 1960s Hydro-Quebec dammed the river draining it. THE DANIEL-JOHNSON DAM, universally called Manic-5, is the largest multiple-arch buttress dam in the world: fourteen buttresses, thirteen arches, 1,314 metres across and 214 metres high, finished in 1968. It is the single most impressive piece of engineering in Quebec and it stands at the end of two hundred kilometres of road with almost nothing on it. Free guided tours run in summer and take you inside the structure.

Route 389, Manicouagan, Cote-Nord, Manic-5, Quebec, Canada

SEASONAL AND TOUR-ONLY. Hydro-Quebec has run FREE GUIDED TOURS of the Daniel-Johnson Dam in SUMMER ONLY, typically from late June to late August, on a published daily schedule with several departures. THERE IS NO SELF-GUIDED ACCESS TO THE STRUCTURE at any time - outside the tour you can look at the dam from the road and the viewpoint, which is still worth the drive, but you cannot go in. TOURS HAVE REQUIRED ADVANCE RESERVATION in recent years and places are limited; photo identification is required and there are security conditions. ROUTE 389 IS THE ONLY WAY HERE - about 210km north of Baie-Comeau, partly unpaved, with very few services. CHECK THE CURRENT TOUR PROGRAMME WITH HYDRO-QUEBEC BEFORE DRIVING: the programme has been suspended in some years, and it is a long way to come for a locked gate.

Manic-5 and the Manicouagan Crater on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos