Located in Eastern Townships. about 90 minutes from Montreal, the area around Mont Orford is a beautiful location for hikers and outdoor enthusiasts. There are several peaks to summit, many beautiful lakes, and more than twenty trails of all sorts of difficulty levels to keep you busy while in the region. To help you plan your outdoor adventure, we put together this guide on the Best Hiking Trails near Mont Orford, focusing on those we believe best maximize the effort-to-reward ratio. We will also limit the list to trails that are less than 20 minutes from Mont Orford itself.
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You might also be interested in these pages:
Best Hiking Trails Near Montreal
Best Hiking Trails in the Near Mont Tremblant
Best Hiking Trails in the Eastern Townships
Orientation – Mont Orford Location
Mont Orford is located in the Eastern Townships in southern Québec, 10 km northwest of Magog, 40 km southwest of Sherbooke, and 120 km east of Montreal.
The hiking trails in the region are primarily divided into two areas: the Mont Orford Ski Resort and the Mont Orford National Park. The trails in the National Park are open almost year-round, aside from a brief period in early/mid-spring to let the trails dry out after the snow melts. The trails in the Mont Orford Ski Resort usually open around mid-spring after the ski season.
While the Mont Orford National Park has a nice mix of easy, moderate and more difficult trails, those of the Mont Orford Ski Resort are all at least of moderate difficulty as they all have a high-altitude peak as an end-point of the trail (either the Mont Giroux, Mont Orford or Mont Alfred-Desrochers summit).
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Mont Orford National Park
Mont Orford National Park is one of 28 Quebec National Parks, the majority of which are administered by the Société des établissements de plein air du Québec (SÉPAQ) (Nunavik Parks administer the others). Although all provincial parks in Quebec have used the term “national park” since 2002, there is no connection to the federal national park system, administered by Parks Canada.
The park is located immediately north of Magog in the Eastern Townships and encompasses several prominent peaks including Mont Orford, Mont Giroux, Mont Aldred Desrocches, Mont Chauve and the Massif des Chênes. It’s one of Quebec’s oldest National parks, created in 1938. If you are looking for some elevation gain with your hikes, then you’ll love several of the trails here (but there are several greater easier trails as well). It’s also a particularly beautiful area to explore during autumn when the leaves turn bright orange and red. The park is also home to several lakes, with two supervised beaches (Lac Stukely and Lac Fraser beaches). Canoes, kayaks, rowboats and more, can be rented by the lakeshores.
The park has two Service/Visitor Centres: the Cerisier Visitor Center at the southern end of the park, and the Bonnallie Visitor Center near the northern end of the park. The road that connects them can be quite scenic, particularly during autumn.
All Quebec National Parks charge the same access fees and you can buy an annual pass that allows unlimited access to all parks.
Daily access fees and Annual passes
Quebec National Parks are managed by the SÉPAQ, a government agency that manages all provincial parks and wildlife preserves in Québec.
There is a limit to the number of visitors that can enter any Québec SÉPAQ National Park on any given day. It is therefore strongly recommended that you purchase your daily right of access online before a visit or that you acquire an annual pass.
The daily pass ($9.85 (2024)) can be purchased here up to 30 days before a visit.
The annual pass can be purchased here either for unlimited access to a single national park ($49.25 (2024)) or for unlimited access to all SÉPAQ national parks ($88.50 (2024)). Even if you have an annual pass, we still recommend arriving early in the morning or mid-to-late afternoon to avoid showing up to a filled parking lot.
Easy trails (Mont Orford National Park)
Fer de Lance Trail
This is both the easiest and shortest trail on this page. The path follows a short loop with a stop midway by a large viewing deck along the shores of the Fer de Lance pond, with a beautiful mountain backdrop (and some low-hanging clouds on the day we took the pictures below)
Distance: 2.6 km (3.6 km from the nearest car park)
Route Type: Loop
Elevation gain: 50m (cumulative elevation gain: 66 m)
Start point: La Bonnallie Car Park and Visitor Center
AllTrails rating: (4.4, 239 ratings (2024))
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 40-50 minutes.
Access Fees: SEPAQ daily rate
Trois Étangs Loop Trail
Although this trail is a bit longer than the previous one, it isn’t much more difficult. In fact, it’s a wide flattened path that is suitable for bikes and strollers too. It provides a pleasant walk through a circular forest path, with viewpoints on three different ponds (Étang Martin, Étang du Milieu, and Étang de l’Ours).
Distance: 5.0 km
Route Type: Loop
Elevation gain: 50 m (cumulative elevation gain: 84 m)
Start point: Cerisier Car Park and Visitor Center
AllTrails rating: (4.3, 669 ratings (2024))
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 1h-1h15
Access Fees: SEPAQ daily rate
Not an AllTrails member yet? We highly recommend signing up for either their free or paid membership plans. The free plan allows you to find new trails and plan routes but it can only be used while hiking if you have access to mobile data. The paid membership plan (AllTrails+) allows you to download trail maps for offline use and provides live progress updates and off-route notifications.
If you are still uncertain – you should know that the All Trails mobile application was voted the 2023 iPhone App of the Year by Apple.
Moderate trails (Mont Orford National Park)
Pékan Trail
This is a beautiful lakeside trail that follows a path that gently goes up and down several times as you loop around the Étang aux Cerises pond (a pond that honestly feels more like a lake, to be honest), with several viewpoints along the way.
Distance: 8.5 km
Route Type: Loop
Elevation gain: 60m (cumulative elevation gain: 215 m)
Start point: Cerisier Car Park and Visitor Center
AllTrails rating: (4.2, 615 ratings (2024))
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 2h-2h30
Access Fees: SEPAQ daily rate
The first half along the east side of the pond is lovely as you travel through various types of woodland, eventually climbing up to a beautiful promontory (Colline de la Serpentine) a few hundred feet above the pond. You will also get to enjoy great lakeside views during the first few hundred meters of the trail.
We prefer the first half of the trail (east side of the lake) and can suggest as an alternative that you simply turn back towards the trailhead once you’ve enjoyed the views from the Colline de la Serpentine – this will result in about a 6 km trail instead of 8.5 km.
Hiking Packing List
All Trails subscription – This comes in really handy for areas with little or no cell reception, as the annual subscription allows you to download trail maps for offline use.
External Battery – If you are using your phone to track your progress along the trail or to help with navigation, you certainly don’t want your phone to die on you. That’s especially true in the unlikely event that you might get hurt or need assistance.
Hiking poles – These can be particularly useful in steep trails or muddy/boggy trail conditions.
Moderate-Difficult trails (Mont Orford National Park)
L’Escalier du Nord Trail (via Pic de l’Ours)
This moderately challenging trail takes you up to the Pic the l’Ours (mountain peak) and is probably the most difficult trail presented in this guide, both because of the elevation gain and the occasional rocky and uneven terrain, which can require a bit of light scrambling. You will be greatly rewarded for your effort, however, as you will cross several panoramic viewpoints along the trail.
Distance: 12.7 km
Route Type: Out & Back
Elevation gain: 450m (cumulative elevation gain: 624 m)
Start point: La Bonnallie Car Park and Visitor Center
AllTrails rating: (4.6, 917 ratings (2024))
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 3h30-4h
Access Fees: SEPAQ daily rate
There is another car park that’s slightly closer to the trailhead, but you would be missing out on some beautiful lakeside views. From the car park (link above; by the La Bonnallie Visitor Center), be sure to walk to Lac Stukely before starting the hike, the scenery along the lake is quite beautiful.
This trail starts relatively easy, with almost no elevation gain for the first 2.5 km along a wide multipurpose path, initially through large conifers and later on through a serene delicious tree section.
Eventually, the trail turns into the forest (notice the signs indicating the L’Escalier du Nord) where a constant ascent awaits you over the next three kilometres. The trail is a little more technical than some of the other trails presented due to the uneven and rocky terrain, where many large rocks and tree roots make up the path.
At the 3.5 km mark, a very short detour takes you to the Escalier du Nord viewpoint (a signpost will indicate the detour to the viewpoint), where the scenery is just spectacular.
From the 5 km mark until the Pic de L’ours summit (6.5 km mark), there are several great viewpoints as the trail starts to follow a ridgeline along large open rock faces. We’ve been both in summer and autumn and the views are spectacular!
Mont Chauve – Ruisseau David Trail (Mont Orford National Park)
This is a great and popular trail taking you up the summit of Mont Chauve. You can also significantly shorten the trail by skipping the loop portion of the trail (more on this below).
Distance: 12.7 km
Route Type: Out & Back and partial loop
Elevation gain: 280m (cumulative elevation gain: 556 m)
Start point: Small Car Park (arrive early)
AllTrails rating: (4.5, 1427 ratings (2024))
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 3h30-4h
Access Fees: SEPAQ daily rate
After a short section of narrow elevated wooden boardwalks, the trail starts to become steeper slowly and continues to do so until about the 3.5 km mark, at which point you’ll reach the intersection that marks the beginning and end point of the loop section around Mont Chauve. Here, you have two options: 1) go left to start the loop section around the Mont Chauve summit, where the trail will first descend quite a bit before rising again towards the summit, or 2) go right and straight to the viewpoints and summit where there is a large wooden belvedere (after which you can return the way you came). If you pick option #2, the trail will only be 7.5km in length and you will have removed nearly half of the elevation gain of the full trail.
Regardless of whether you do the full trail or not, you’ll get fantastic aerial views of three different lakes during the hike, first of Lake Fraser, then of the long and slim Cherry Pond (and Mont Orford in the background), and finally of the larger crescent-shaped Lake Stukely.
Mont Orford Ski Resort
As we mentioned earlier, all the hiking trails that start at the base of Mont Orford lead to one of three summits (Mont Giroux (263 m above the base), Mont Orford (476 m) or Mont Alfred-Desrochers summit (265 m). Unless you are short on time or don’t think you can tackle the extra elevation gain, we highly recommend making your way up to the Mont Orford summit, where you will find 5 spacious wooden belvederes spread around the large summit that provide panoramic views of the surrounding landscape.
If you come during early autumn (usually mid-September to mid-October) and don’t want to have to deal with steep trails to reach the Mont Orford summit, you can use the gondola/lift. During Mont Orford’s Festival of Colours (La Flambée des Couleurs), you can pre-book your spot on the Gondola (the gondola is closed during the summer). For those who would like to use the gondola just one-way, a full-price round-trip ticket is the only option available, unfortunately. You don’t have to use it both ways, but you won’t save any money by hiking either up or down.
Mont Orford Loop Trail
This trail combines two of the most popular trails to reach the summit: it uses the La Grande Coulée trail to reach the summit and returns to the base via the La 4-KM trail. It’s quite a challenging trail mostly because of the steep ascent and rapid elevation gain. You will essentially climb 470 meters in just over 2.5 km!
Distance: 6.3 km
Route Type: Loop
Elevation gain: 471m
Start point: Ski Resort Car Park
AllTrails rating: (4.4, 604 ratings (2024))
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 3h30-4h
Access Fees: Free. Parking is free during the summer but costs $10 during the autumn color festival (mid-September to mid-October).
If you would prefer a slightly less taxing route to the summit, we suggest taking the 4-KM trail both ways. It’s a bit longer (7.8 km instead of 6.3 km), but you might complete the trail in about the same amount of time (or less) since your ascent won’t be as steep.
The trails at the Ski Resort aren’t your traditional hiking trails through thick forests, as for the most part, they follow the mountain’s ski slopes. The path along the La Grande Coulée trail is the narrower of the two trails along a gravel path splitting sections of long grass, whereas the 4-KM trail follows a wider gravel path.
Views along the La Grande Coulée trail
Views along the 4-KM trail
Views from the summit belvederes
Magog
Apart from the small settlement of Orford, Magog is the closest town to Mont Orford. Just north of the town (between the town and Mont Orford) you’ll find some beautiful, unique and easy trails in the Marais de la Rivière aux Cerises park.
Marais de la Rivière aux Cerises
This small park offers a range of small walking trails through various ecosystems: from small dense forests to expansive marshlands. The park is particularly known for its long boardwalk trail built on stilts over marshland, and a tall observation tower at one end of the trail. It’s also home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including turtles, frogs, great blue herons and so much more.
Access to the park is free, but there is a parking fee ($2.50/h or $10 for the day). Car parks can be found on either side of the park: the western end, and the eastern end.
The western portion of the park has several short trails that go through a variety of small forests and around freshwater ponds (you don’t have to limit yourself to the green highlighted trail section below).
The only trail along the eastern end of the park follows a long wooden boardwalk through dense marshlands, with several information panels about the environment and wildlife of the marshland placed along the route.
You can also do a full loop that takes you along road-side bike paths and the shores of Lake Memphremagog. The full loop will take you about 1h15-1h30 to complete. You could also do just an out-and-back trail and stay within the park, which should take about 1h-1h15 to complete.
As you walk along the shoreline of Memphremagog Lake, you’ll get an appreciation of how big the lake actually is. In fact, the name “Memphremagog” comes from the Abenaki First Nation word mamhlawbagak, which means “large expanse of water” – the lake is 31 miles (50 km) long and has a maximum recorded depth of 351 feet (107 m).
In the lakefront park, you can also see a large floral display of the mythical Memphremagog amphibious lake monster, known as Memphre, which shares many similarities with the more famous Loch Ness Monster. However, the lake’s depth is barely half of Loch Ness’ depth.
Mont Orford Area Trail Tips
-During the peak summer and fall months, the parking lots can fill up quickly, particularly on weekends. Try to arrive early in the morning or late afternoon to guarantee a spot.
-Mosquitoes and black flies can be a nuisance at certain times during the year. The exact dates vary from year to year, but they are generally most present from mid-May to mid-July. Regardless of when you come, it’s always a good idea to carry some bug spray with you, just in case.
-Stick to the designated path to protect the surrounding environment. Moreover, ticks are present in the Eastern townships, so straying from the trails carries additional risk.
-Best time to visit: we highly recommend the end of summer and early fall (August, September and October). The weather will be pleasant and the likelihood of being harassed by bugs is significantly reduced. Moreover, July is when most people in Québec take their summer holidays.
Hiking Packing List
All Trails subscription – This comes in really handy for areas with little or no cell reception, as the annual subscription allows you to download trail maps for offline use.
External Battery – If you are using your phone to track your progress along the trail or to help with navigation, you certainly don’t want your phone to die on you. That’s especially true in the unlikely event that you might get hurt or need assistance.
Hiking poles – These can be particularly useful in steep trails or muddy/boggy trail conditions.
Want to Discover More Hiking Trails Around Montreal?
You might be interested in these pages:
Best Hiking Trails Near Montreal
Best Hiking Trails in the Near Mont Tremblant
Best Hiking Trails in the Eastern Townships
Photography Gear
If you like our photography, you might be interested in some of the gear we use to shoot our travel and hiking destinations.
Camera Body – Nikon Z 6ii Fx-series Mirrorless Body
Main Lens – NIKON 24-120mm F/4G ED VR AF-S
Zoom Lens – Sigma 745-306 150-600mm f/5-6.3
Polarizing filters – Urth Circular Polarizing (CPL)
Camera Tripod – K&F Concept 64-inch Camera Tripod
Mini-tripod – Lammcou Flexible Camera Tripod
Camera/hiking backpack – Vanguard Alta Rise 48 Backpack
Universal Travel Adapter – VYLEE Universal International Power Travel Plug
Other Travel Essentials
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Car Rentals
Discover Cars is our go-to website for car rentals. We almost always find our preferred rate there.
Transfer from Airport
Welcome Pickups is our favourite private transfer service, which you can pre-book at a fixed price. Currently available in 220 cities all over the world (mostly in Europe, but with several major cities in Asia, the Middle East and the US).
Kiwitaxi is another private transfer service – we haven’t tried it yet, but it’s currently available in a few more countries (102 as of 2024).
Hotels and Accommodations (coming soon)
Photography Prints
If you found this blog useful, you can help support our blog by purchasing low-cost digital prints. Printed physical prints are also available for purchase.
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Well, that wraps it up! We hope you enjoyed our Guide to the Best Hiking Trails near Mont Orford and that it will prove useful for planning your hiking trip.
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