Fall colours 2014

My wife and I decided not to be cheated on the Tremblant fall colours this year, and therefore took the last 2 weeks of September off.  In years past we were either too early or too late, and this year we nailed it.  Now of course, with prime colours comes large crowds, and indeed the ski hill was extremely busy with cars lined up a fair distance along Chemin Duplessis trying to turn left into the parking lots.  It was a glorious weekend with clear skies and highs in the mid-twenties which attracted throngs from Montreal and other points beyond...but rather than fight the crowds, we had a secret strategy.

The view from the casino restaurant patio

We bypassed the line and continued straight along Duplessis to the casino.  That's right, we got there just as the casino was opening (around 11am) so there was a ton of parking, and we proceeded to do some slots for about half an hour (we won about 40 bucks by the way, there's a change).  Around 11:45 we headed upstairs to the restaurant, expecting too have to compete for patio space.  But to our surprise, the patio was empty even though there were dozens of people in the resto enjoying the buffet. Luckily, I brought my casino card and got three bucks off each of our dishes, which helps because nothing is cheap at the restaurant.  The food is fine, nothing to write home about but certainly far better than anything in the ski village; the real payoff was the amazing view of the Versant Soleil.

Our original plan after lunch was to take the casino gondola to the village for some shopping and siteseeing, but unfortunately the gondola doesn't run until 4pm on Saturdays.  Had we executed this plan on Sunday, we'd be in luck as it starts at 11am and the views from this gondola are worth the ride alone.  However, the shuttle bus runs every 30 minutes on the half hour so we opted for that after a few hands of blackjack.  A beautiful day and a much simpler way to enjoy the colours without the crowds.