The 17 Best Hiking Spots in and Around Montreal

Montreal is a hiking city in disguise. Sure, there’s the mountain that gave the island its name, but venture just a bit further, and you’ll find that both the island and its surrounding areas were practically built for days on the trails. Glacier-carved ridgelines in the Laurentians, waterfall-laced gorges in the Eastern Townships, and quiet lakeside loops just off the highway complement tamer downtown nature paths and western agricultural enclaves.

In rounding up our list of the best hikes in and around the city, we’ve attempted to strike a balance between Mount Royal’s accessible summit paths and technical ridge scrambles that require ropes and head for heights. You’ll find family-friendly boardwalks through marshland, panoramic peaks with views into Vermont and New York, and a few lesser-known spots that the locals tend to keep lock-and-key.

If you want a taste of nature but aren’t necessarily keen to lace up and get moving every week of the warmer months, check out our list of the best beaches in and around Montreal. Conversely, if you want to get active while staying in the city, you can reference our guide to things that feel like therapy in Montreal and use it as an urban hiking hit list. And, for those looking to bring the feel of the outdoors to their homes, we’ve collected a guide to the best florists.

Mount Royal

Travel time: 5 to 10-minute walk from downtown Montreal

Montreal’s namesake, Mount Royal, is in the city’s centre, but despite its downtown location, the mountain has not been entirely overtaken by skyscrapers. Instead, various hiking trails with green canopies overhead create a quiet oasis from the busy streets, drawing in four million visitors every year. The most popular routes are the Summit Loop, a 2.4 km trail during which Montreal comes into panoramic view, and the Chemin Olmsted, an 11.1 km hike designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (who designed New York City’s Central Park). There are also several shorter trails, including some with paved paths for wheelchair and stroller access. To get there, take the green line to McGill or Peel, and walk to the base of the mountain.

Mont d’Argent

Travel time: 1.5 to 2 hours from Montreal

Near La Conception and close to Mont-Tremblant, Mont d’Argent is about 2 hours north of Montreal, in the Laurentians. Known as one of Quebec’s foremost rock and ice climbing destinations, over 100 routes have been developed since the 1950s. Its trail network spans more than 14 km, with its signature loop, via la Crête and la Forêt Enchantée, spanning 5.8 km and requiring the use of ropes, ladders, and stairs to ascend. Though it’s a technical hike, it’s well worth the summit views of the Laurentians and the similarly scenic ridgelines.

Mont-Orford

Travel time: 1.25 to 1.5 hours from Montreal

Just around an hour and a half outside of Montreal, Mont-Orford is a national park in the Eastern Townships that doubles as a ski resort. In the warmer seasons, hikers take over its many trails, the most popular of which is Mont Chauve via Le Castor and des Loutres, a 10.5 km route that tops off at 599 metres, remaining on the easier side of what the mountain has to offer. Mont-Orford’s signature route, the Sentier des Crêtes, is a rocky ridge trail that logs in at nearly 22 km and offers some of the province’s most striking views, with Lake Stukely and Lake Fraser visible in the landscape below. For the more technical terrain near the mountain’s summit, bring trekking poles, and some trails restrict dogs until the end of April, so heed accordingly.

Mont Saint-Hilaire

Travel time: 30 minutes to 1 hour from Montreal

Mont Saint-Hilaire sits in the McGill University-owned Gault Nature Reserve, Canada’s first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and home to the country’s oldest old-growth deciduous forest—boasting trees that are over 250 years old, layered canopies, and abundant biodiversity. The Grand Tour, a 12 km loop, links all the mountain’s major summits, while the Pain de Sucre is shorter, climbing steeply past 400-year-old sugar maples. On clear days, the Adirondacks are visible from the summit, along with Montreal’s skyline. Keep in mind: the reserve is around 40 minutes from the city, requires advance parking reservations, charges an entrance fee, and doesn’t permit dogs on the trails.

Mont-Saint-Bruno National Park

Travel time: 30 to 45 minutes from Montreal

Mont-Saint-Bruno, located around 30 minutes from Montreal, is Quebec’s most visited Sépaq park and welcomes nearly 900,000 visitors a year. Its Sentier des Lacs loops roughly 9 km around all five of the national park’s lakes, conveniently being the mountain’s easiest and most popular route. With only about 134 metres of elevation across 27 km of trails, the park has plenty of options that are accessible for families, strollers, and wheelchairs, and also offers adaptive equipment, including wheelchairs for duo running and hiking and specialized bicycles for accessible cycling. Also on the mountain are a historic mill and an orchard open for apple picking in the fall.

Mont Rigaud (L’Escapade)

Travel time: 1 to 1.5 hours from Montreal

Under an hour west of Montreal in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Mont Rigaud sports a sprawling network of 20 to 27 km trails that are free to access and open year-round—operating as a ski resort in winter and a mountain biking and hiking destination in spring, summer, and fall. The longest single route, the Haut-Lieu trail, gently climbs and descends through forest for over 13 km, while the shorter Cross of Mont Rigaud trail leads to a summit cross with views of the Ottawa River Valley and the foothills of the Adirondacks. Dogs and horses are allowed on the trail, as long as they’re leashed or on leads.

Mont Tremblant

Travel time: 1.5 to 2 hours from Montreal

Though Mont Tremblant is perhaps best known for its ski-season slopes and resorts, the Laurentian-located mountain also offers hiking on the resort side and within the national park. The resort features 13 free, marked trails of differing difficulty, and a panoramic gondola ride down, while the park side includes the challenging Grand Brûlé route, a steep, rocky 5.6 km hike that takes around three hours. Waterfalls, lake views, and loops amid vast wilderness punctuate the park's trail network of over 82 km with ten backcountry huts. An entrance fee applies, and dogs are not permitted in the national park.

Mont-Mégantic

Travel time: 2.5 to 3 hours from Montreal

Roughly two to two and a half hours from Montreal near the Maine border, Mont-Mégantic National Park is best known as the world's first International Dark Sky Reserve, a protected area committed to maintaining clear night skies, minimizing light pollution, and being home to the second-largest telescope in Eastern Canada. The park splits into two sectors about 25 minutes apart by road. The observatory sector’s 15 km Boucle du Mont-Mégantic loop is the mountain’s signature hike and finishes at the titular observatory. The Franceville sector is its easier neighbour and offers accessible, family-friendly trails, waterfalls, cabin rentals, and snowshoeing trails in the winter.