Hiking - Mont Tremblant National Park

Par ici pour la boucle!

After two years in the region, we finally made the trek to Mont Tremblant National Park (it's actually a provincial park but they call them "national" in Quebec).  Now, we had actually visited the park last year when we did the Via Ferrata, but that barely takes you past the front gates in the Diable sector.  This time, we intended to get deeper into the park, and we succeeded!

It was an overcast day with no rain in the forecast, although we would end up thoroughly soaked before the afternoon was over.  We arrived at the visitor's centre and asked for a hike with some panoramic views, something challenging, and about 3 hours in length.  They suggested La boucle de centenaire, and it was a great trail.  As we hiked along the trail, we were passed by a couple of ultra-fit trail runners, so this route attracts a variety of visitors.  We also passed a number of people coming back, mostly discouraged by the increasingly heavy rain.  Like many mountain trails, La boucle starts off with a kilometre or so of flat, woodsy trail, and then the ascent begins.

Karen hikes around the rock wall

While this hike was listed as "challenging", we never really felt our quads burning.  We've hiked in the Rockies and Pyrennees, and those are some gruelling day-long slogs up and down the mountain.  Tremblant is far gentler, so don't be put off by the "challenging" label.  Still, we were out for a couple of hours, and had we not turned back due to the driving rain, we may well have felt it more.  All that said, we got back home and took a welcome nap, so it may have been more work than I'm letting on.

The rain stopped just long enough for this view

The rain did not ruin the beauty of this hike.  We often felt like we were in a Lord of the Rings setting with towering trees and gnarled roots, winding trails, majestic rocks and of course, some spectacular views.  Even in the misty air we got a couple of beautiful mountain views across the park.  This is one of a couple dozen hikes at the park, at all levels.  You can see the complete list of trails at the Park website, and at about a 45 minute drive from the Tremblant resort, it's worth the trip!

August 2013 Update
If you're staying in the Tremblant resort and don't have a car, you can now access the Mont Tremblant National Park via the daily shuttle. It runs from early July to mid-October, several times daily from the Place des Voyageurs.  This gives you easy access to the canoe/kayak trips, Via Ferrata and all the hiking the park has to offer.  Full details are available on the Tremblant website.

Meantime, don't miss our write-up on hiking the Mont Tremblant ski mountain.  Still officially part of the National park, but we treat it separately!

October 2013 Update

Karen shows "we are here"

We had a week and a half in Tremblant this October, which allowed time for a couple trips to the National Park.  This time, we were looking for a variety of activities, something a bit shorter than the Centenaire described above.  To be honest, our criteria were a little unrealistic: we wanted amazing views and scenery without too much work.  They say there's no free lunch, but we got pretty close with La Corniche, a moderate one-hour trek to a wooden viewing platform that affords sweeping views across Lac Monroe.

A waterfall feeds a crystalline pond

We actually found out about La Corniche through a new app that Sepaq (the park authority in Quebec) recently launched call Park Path Explorer.  They only have a few trails included for Tremblant thus far, and are working on more, but the app is quite good.  If you download the app to your smartphone, it provides information that you can read at various numbered stations through the trails.  It also provides some nice photos so you can get a sense of what the route is about before you venture out.  This has been our frustration with the park website...it only provides scant details on each route (length, difficulty), and hence we're writing this blog to provide some more context for the trails.  Anyway, the app is a great resource.

The parking lot is just past the Lac Monroe rental centre and the new Discovery Centre, on the right.  It's a small lot with room for just a few dozen cars...not sure where you'd park if there were no room.  Although it's small, the bonus is there's a toilet right beside the trailhead.  How civilized!

How did this get here???

The path is a nice, flat compacted surface, so no worries about wearing advanced footwear for this hike.  Just a few minutes into the trail you're rewarded with a beautiful little creek, and further along, the waterfall that cascades into a sparkling little pond which feeds the creek.  There's a bench here if you'd like a moment to take in the view...if it's occupied, maybe try later on as this hike is an out-and-back so you'll pass by again.  Further along, you'll see a massive rock.  After you pose for a photo with it, hang left through the bushes and you'll find a nice private spot to sit and enjoy the waterfall.

Lac Monroe and surrounding mountains

Even though we were here in the fall, the path was still quite busy with many families trekking up for the beautiful views.  About 15 minutes from the viewing platform, you have an opportunity to hang a left and take the trail named La Roche.  We didn't go this route so can't comment, but it sure sounds good.  Maybe next time.  Soon, we saw a wooden bridge, and that was the signal that we were close to the viewing platform.  It's a popular spot and you have to jockey a bit to get an unobstructed photo of the magnificent landscape.  What a fantastic view, especially considering you get it for a moderate one-hour hike!

Karen rocks the curve!

After we hiked back down, which took about 30 minutes, we dragged the mountain bikes out of the car and suited up for La Boucle des Chutes-Croches.  This is an approximately 14km (9mi) bike trail around Lac Monroe, also featured in the Park Path Explorer.  The great thing is that you can hope on the bike path right from the entrance too the parking lot!  This is giggle riding...wide trails so you can ride side by side, nice flat surface, and only occasional and moderate climbs.  It seemed we had more than our fair share of downhill gliding, but I guess that's not possible when you cycle a circuit...

Les Chutes-Croches as seen from the viewing deck

The waterfalls that are the namesake of the trail are a few K's away from the parking lot.  You first see them as you cross a wooden bridge, and they are amazing.  They're not really waterfalls, but rather an ultra-rocky stretch of river.  Still it's worth dismounting your bike and taking in the view, and because the water is rushing so rapidly, you get the refreshing cool air off the river.  A minute or so past the bridge, there's a viewing deck down a path off the left..definitely stop here and bring your camera.  The remainder of the trail is fairly wooded although you get occasional peek-throughs to Lac Monroe, as well as "Petit Lac Monroe".  Having visited in October, we were also surrounded by beautiful fall colours.  So as an alternative to our usual day-long grunt up the mountain, we had an amazing afteroon on foot and wheel.  Highly recommended if you can bring bikes.  If not, walk the trail to the chutes bridge (turn right along the bike path from the parking lot) as it's just a few K's to the beautiful views.

Later during our October visit to Tremblant, we returned for a kayak trip.  I'm not going to write it up here, but instead you can read all about our capers on the River Kayaking post.  Bottom line is you can river kayak in the national park and they have a return shuttle to bring you back to your car!  The kayak trip began and ended at Lac Chat, and we had some time on our hands before dinner reservations at Le Caribou in nearby Lac Superieur.  So we decided to do the Lac aux Atocas hike, which according to the sign, takes an hour. It departs from the parking lot at Lac Chat.

Sweet little deer let us take a couple pics

This is the easiest hike we've ever done.  Absolutely no elevation gain/loss, nice flat compacted surface, easy going all the way.  Still it was a real treat...no lame hikes in this park.  We were immediately greeted by a pheasant who stared us down and then retreated into the bush, too quick for a photo op.  Further down the trail, I saw something white move ahead of me.  Turned out to be the tail of a deer, who kept her distance but wasn't afraid to let us pass close by and take a few photos.  We shuffled along quickly and let her finish her snack.  So far, this modest trail was paying dividends.  No guarantees of course that you'll have the same wildlife encounters...

The beautiful boardwalk around Lac Chat

The trail continues along the far shores of Lac Chat where we had embarked on our kayak trip, and bends into a beautiful boardwalk.  The trail is dotted with numbered info signs, so I suspect we'd have stuff to read about if there were any brochures left at the trailhead.  Regardless, this was a charming hike and we could see where the Diable River fed into Lac Chat.  Further down, you finally encounter Lac aux Atocas, a small swampy lake viewed from the dry safety of a boardwalk.  Continue through a dense clutch of conifers and you're back where you started.  I guess the circuit would take an hour of you stopped to read the materials at each station and ponder on the beauty of what you see, but we were done in 35 minutes.  We loved this little hike because it was *quiet*.  Nobody there on a late afternoon in October.  Try it out of you have a little time on your hands. 

November 2016 Update
This year we decided to spend a week in Mont Tremblant in November, versus just a weekend.  This is a very quiet time in the area - fall colours are long since over, and the ski season is still weeks away.  Some business owners use this down period to take vacation and recharge before the busy winter season kicks in.  We love this time of year in Tremblant not only because it's quiet, but also because the winter chill begins to set in and you need (yes, need) to put on toques, sweaters and sit by the fire with a glass of wine.  It's also a great time for hiking as the trails are still dry and walkable, and with the foliage down, the visibility is enhanced.  And so we ventured back to the National Park for another hike!

View of Lac Monroe from the Discovery Centre

It was a cold Wednesday, overcast with a forecast high of  4 degrees Celcius.  We did some advanced research and chose La Roche as our hike for the day as it looked interesting and was new territory for us.  When we arrived at the Discovery Centre, we were almost surprised to find a staff member there as the park was practically deserted.  Interestingly, her first recommendation for a hike was La Roche, so we knew we had a winner.  She explained that you can do La Roche and double back to your starting point in about two hours, or you can continue on to La Corniche (see above) and make it a three-hour loop.  We decided to just stick with La Roche and were not disappointed.

Start here!

The trail head is very close to the Discovery Centre and has ample parking.  On a busier day, you could pretty much leave your car at the Discovery Centre, particularly if you were to do the Corniche/Roche combo loop.  Anyway, we embarked on the trail which was a perfectly groomed, flat surface made of crushed stone.  One of the amazing things about this trail is that the surface remains equally well groomed throughout, making it a very accessible path.  I read an account of this hike online and they called it "steep at times", and the National Park website grades it as intermediate.  Both are fair comments, but I wouldn't be discouraged from doing this trail.  You could almost push a baby carriage up this thing, and even if your fitness level isn't what it used to be, there are plenty of visual treats in the first half to make your trip worthwhile even if you decided to turn back at the halfway mark.

Lovely cascade about a third of the way up

Speaking of visual treats, if you have read any of my other hiking posts, you'll know I'm a sucker for streams and waterfalls.  The first half of La Roche faithfully fallows a rocky stream, with a series of increasingly beautiful cascades and waterfalls along the way.  Tremblant had quite a bit of rain before we visited so the streams were fairly active for our hike that day.  The water is so clear, you're tempted to take a cool drink from one of the many pools (don't), or on a hot summer day, to lie down and let the waters cool you down.  Certainly Karen and I have taken off our boots and soaked our tired feet in a few such locations, although on a cold day we took a pass.  At about the half-way mark, there is a great waterfall about two storeys high.  OK, it's not Yosemite falls but it's quite picturesque and a great place to stop for a snack and rehydrate.

Stay left for La Roche

After some hot tea and a snack beside the waterfall, we pushed on and now the wind started to pick up. Although we hadn't experienced any really steep climbs, we realized we had gained some elevation as the wind blew up through a valley and we could start to make out distant mountains through the leafless trees.  The trail turned away from the stream and made a distinct left up towards what was likely the outlook point.  Despite the slope, the trail remained amazingly groomed, even banked as we turned corners like a race track.  We soon reached a junction, left for La Roche and right/straight for Lac Poisson and Les Cascades.  The guide at the Discovery Centre said these two others are great trails in the spring and early summer when the water is higher and the waterfalls are running.  Apparently this time of year there's not much to see and no lookouts.  So, onward to La Roche!

The viewing platform on La Roche

After about a five-minute ascent we could now see Lac Monroe through the tress and we knew we were close.  We came upon another junction, where a right turn up a rocky trail would lead to La Corniche, as well as pass by a little white cabin with solar panels on the roof (we checked it out, it's not worth the trip).  Back to the La Roche trail, which actually descends for a bit before you get to a magnificent viewing platform.  Like La Corniche, this platform offers a 180-degree view across the mountains of the Diable sector as well as several lakes in the southern end of the park.  Look over the edge of the platform and you'll see why this trail is called La Roche.  We had an unexpected treat this day - because it was just above freezing, we could see a small snow storm approaching in the distance, adding to what was already a dramatic, moody November view.

Waterfall is larger than this photo suggests...

If you're looking for a relatively quick hike with big payoff, you can't beat la Roche!