James Bay Road website

Brisay

Brisay is located at km 582 of the Trans-Taiga Road.

At this point you are 658 km from the nearest town (Radisson).

There are Hydro Quebec residences here, not open to the public. No services, accommodations or fuel.

There's an extensive set of Hydro Quebec interpretive signs here, along a small self-guided road tour of the hydro installation, including a high viewpoint. Well worth a visit, especially after driving all this way! No tours are available.

To continue to Caniapiscau, when coming in to the Brisay area, turn right at the "T" junction, follow the signs to the "Belvedere", then turn left at the signs for "Belvedere" and "Caniapiscau" (the sign for Caniapiscau indicates that it is 92km away, but all other sources say that the Trans-Taiga Road ends at km 666). Continue straight, over the control structure past the "Belvederes". There are no further signs indicating that this is the road to Caniapiscau.

The road from here to Caniapiscau (km 666) is rougher and a 4-wheel drive vehicle is recommended by Hydro Quebec. The main reason for this is the very coarse gravel used for this road - there's large rocks littering the road surface. However, I have heard from people who have driven this road in ordinary passenger cars and they say it is fine. You do have to keep your eyes open for the larger rocks though.  However, the road becomes more scenic and rises in elevation (up to about 2000 feet above sea level).

 
From Here to: Km Miles
Amos 1308 811
Caniapiscau 64 40
Chibougamau 1272 789
Chisasibi 728 451
Eastmain 878 544
Matagami 1126 698
Nemaska 967 600
Radisson 658 408
Wemindji 704 436
Waskaganish 991 614
 

This map is of the area surrounding Brisay, which is in the center of the map. 

 

This next map shows the Brisay local area. The Trans-Taiga Road comes in from the west on the left side of the map, at the middle (where it says "Vers Laforge-2").


The viewpoints are marked with "Belvedere" signs, and are represented on the map below by small circles with a dot in the middle. If you've driven all this way to Brisay, it's well worth the time to go around to these viewpoints and have a look, especially #1, which gives a fabulous view of the surrounding region.

 
Topo map of the Brisay area. The Trans-Taiga Road comes in from the east at the upper left. Brisay is in the middle where the road junction is. The Trans-Taiga Road road continues east to Caniapiscau to the right and up.
 

 
This photo is at viewpoint #2 (refer to the above map) of the hydro-electric generating station.

At each of the viewpoints there are several information panels describing in detail various aspects of the region and Brisay (all in French).

The overflow structure (viewpoint #2).
The actual generating station (viewpoint #3).
A high viewpoint (#1) overlooking the hydro generating station.

 

Looking "downstream" along the La Grande River, from viewpoint #1.

This viewpoint is well worth a visit!

This is looking along the road continuing on to Caniapiscau.

 

 
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