The Charlevoix impact structure reshaped the entire region. The shock of the meteorite strike, estimated during the Ordovician period, shattered the bedrock along deep fault lines that rivers later exploited. The Malbaie River found these fractures and cut downward through the Laurentian mountain range, sculpting gorges whose walls now rank among the highest rock faces east of the Rockies. The park sits in the eastern part of the Lac Jacques-Cartier massif, covering 224.7 square kilometres of mountainous, heavily forested terrain. Montagne des Erables, the park's highest summit at 1,048 metres, holds the distinction of having the tallest cliff faces in eastern Canada. From its rim, the gorge drops away so steeply that the river below appears as a thin silver thread. The rock itself is ancient Canadian Shield granite and gneiss, polished by glaciers and fractured by tectonic forces that continue to define the valley's sharp geometry.

The park's most famous trail carries the name of men who once risked their lives in the gorge below. The Acropole des Draveurs, the Acropolis of the Log Drivers, climbs 800 metres of elevation over 10.5 kilometres to reach the summit ridge. The draveurs were the lumberjacks who floated timber down the Malbaie River to the St. Lawrence in the early twentieth century, guiding massive log booms through the narrow gorge with poles and sheer nerve. The work was lethal. Men balanced on shifting logs above cold, fast water, and the gorge walls offered no easy escape if the boom broke apart. The trail that bears their name ascends through dense boreal forest before emerging onto exposed rock ledges where the full scale of the gorge becomes apparent. Hikers who reach the top find themselves standing above a vertical world, the river canyon stretching in both directions, the forest canopy far below shimmering in shades that shift from the pale green of birch to the dark emerald of spruce.

In 1988, UNESCO designated the Charlevoix region as a World Biosphere Reserve, and the Hautes-Gorges park became one of its two core protected areas, alongside the neighbouring Grands-Jardins National Park upstream on the Malbaie River. The biosphere reserve recognized Charlevoix as a living laboratory where boreal and temperate ecosystems overlap in ways found nowhere else at this latitude. Within the gorge, the microclimates created by the towering walls produce ecological niches that shelter species more commonly found hundreds of kilometres farther north or south. The park was established as a regional park in 1988 and elevated to provincial national park status by the Government of Quebec in 2000. SEPAQ, the Societe des etablissements de plein air du Quebec, manages the territory, offering riverboat cruises along the gorge, kayak and canoe routes, cycling trails, and winter ice climbing on the frozen canyon walls. The Malbaie River itself remains a draw for anglers, continuing a tradition that predates the park by generations.

The Malbaie River begins at Petit lac Tristan, a small lake nestled in a marshy mountain valley north of Quebec City. From there it describes a sweeping half-circle that arcs north before curving back south and east toward the St. Lawrence. This unusual course entirely encircles the watershed of the Gouffre River, which empties into the St. Lawrence at Baie-Saint-Paul. The effect, seen from the air, is of a great horseshoe drawn across the Laurentian highlands. Within the park, the river flows through its deepest and most dramatic stretch, the gorge walls pressing close on both sides. In autumn, the maples that give Montagne des Erables its name ignite the canyon with colour, their reds and oranges reflected in the dark water below. The ZEC des Martres borders the park to the west, extending the wild corridor into hunting and fishing territory that stretches unbroken across the Laurentian backcountry. From the reception desk at Saint-Aime-des-Lacs, the road into the park follows the river upstream into a world that narrows and deepens with every kilometre.