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Winter

Escarpment and Cimes Trails (Mégantic National Park) – A Winter Hiking Guide

February 27, 2024
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Eastern Townships, Quebec, Winter

The Mont Mégantic National Park is well-known for its winter wonderland landscapes. Located in the Franceville sector, these two trails are among the park’s most popular trails and some of the more family-friendly ones, as they are less challenging and steep than those found in the Observatory sector, such as the Mont Saint-Joseph trail and the Mont Mégantic trail. Below we present our Winter Hiking Guide for both The Escarpment Trail and the Cimes Trail (also known as the Trail...

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By R & S

Mont Saint-Joseph – A Winter Hiking Guide

February 27, 2024
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Eastern Townships, Quebec, Winter

Mont Mégantic National Park is well known for its impressive winter wonderland landscapes for a few months every year. It’s also a great hiking destination, and the Mont Saint-Joseph trail is one of our favorites for enjoying the beautiful frozen scenery found within the national park. Reaching an altitude of 1105 m, the trail offers several fantastic viewpoints and is easily combined with a few other park trails so that you can hit more than just the one summit during...

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By R & S

The Mont Mégantic Trail (Observatory) – A Winter Hiking Guide

February 23, 2024
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Eastern Townships, Quebec, Winter

Known for its dark skies and the astronomical observatory at its summit, Mont Mégantic (and the national park that bears its name) is a fantastic hiking destination, one that we particularly enjoy in winter when the mountain forests turn into a frozen winter wonderland. Of the several fantastic trails that the national park has to offer, the trail leading to Mont Mégantic’s summit is probably our favorite. As if the surrounding winter scenery wasn’t beautiful enough, coming across the observatory...

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By R & S

Mont Mégantic National Park – Best Trails and Hiking Guide

February 21, 2024
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Eastern Townships, Quebec, Winter

Mont Megantic National Park in southeastern Quebec is a special place for outdoor enthusiasts. It’s fairly remote, has beautiful mountain scenery in all seasons (particularly in winter in our opinion), is part of the first international dark sky reserve, and is home to the Mont Mégantic Astronomical Observatory. When visiting the park, there are several fantastic trails to choose from, including one that takes you right next to the observatory. This is definitely one of our favorite areas in Québec...

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By R & S

Best Things to See and Do in Baie-Saint-Paul (Charlevoix)

January 31, 2024
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Charlevoix, Quebec, Winter

One of many charming small towns nestled in the picturesque Charlevoix region of Québec, Baie-Saint-Paul is undoubtedly the most charming of them all. Located just an hour north of Québec City, this quaint town of 7,000 inhabitants is more than worthy of a stop, if not an overnight stay, during your time in Charlevoix. Although Baie St-Paul offers its unique charm year-round as an artists’ town with a rich cultural scene, we find that it becomes particularly wonderful and appealing...

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By R & S

Mont-du-Lac-des-Cygnes – A Winter Hiking Guide

January 27, 2024
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Charlevoix, Quebec, Winter

Mont-du-Lac-des-Cygnes is one of Grands-Jardin National Park‘s most popular trails – and with good reason. Although it is a moderately challenging hike, it will provide you with a great bang for your buck, as the work-to-reward ratio of this trail is hard to beat. The views from the summit a simply stunning, where you’ll enjoy 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains and glacier-carved valleys. So to help you get the most out of your hiking adventure in Parc National des...

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By R & S

Mont du Dome – A Winter Hiking Guide

January 24, 2024
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Charlevoix, Quebec, Winter

The Mont du Dome, whose summit of the same name peaks at 960m, is home to one of our favorite trails in Quebec’s stunningly beautiful Charlevoix region. It’s a fun trail to do, particularly in winter, and will provide you with stunning views of the surrounding mountains and the glacier-carved valleys below. Its close proximity to other trails in the nearby Grands-Jardins National Park makes it a great alternative option for those planning to visit the area as it is...

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By R & S

Sutton’s Round Top Trail – A Winter Hiking Guide

January 20, 2024
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Eastern Townships, Quebec, Winter

Mont Sutton is often regarded as one of the best skiing resorts in eastern Quebec, but it’s not just a winter paradise for avid skiers. The area is also renowned for some beautiful winter hiking trails, such as the Round Top Trail. Although the hike up to the Round Top (the highest peak in the Sutton Mountains) isn’t an easy one, and isn’t overly difficult either making it accessible to most who don’t mind a good climb. Given that there...

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By R & S

10 Quebec hiking trails that are stunning in winter

January 17, 2024
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Quebec, Quebec Province, Winter

If you are an outdoor enthusiast like us and love beautiful winter wonderland landscapes despite our cold Québec winters, you will be happy to know that we have some excellent hiking trails to recommend. Hiking is definitely not an activity that should be exclusively practiced in the summer or fall. In fact, we find it can be even more enjoyable in winter when well prepared. All you need is to dress appropriately given the colder conditions (i.e. layers) and, when...

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By R & S

Best Hiking Trails Near Baie-Saint-Paul (Charlevoix)

January 13, 2024
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Charlevoix, Quebec, Winter

If you are an outdoor enthusiast and plan on staying near the Baie-Saint-Paul area in Charlevoix, you’ll be very happy to know that there are some beautiful hiking trails nearby, most of which can be reached within a 30-minute drive from Baie-Saint-Paul. To help you get the most out of your outdoor adventures, we put together this guide on the Best Hiking Trails near Baie-Saint-Paul, focusing on trails that best maximize the effort-to-reward ratio. Although most of the trails we present...

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By R & S

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‘Tis the Season - part deux
★彡𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀彡★ 📍Québec City, Québec (pics 1-5)
📍Montréal, Québec (6-9) The Story of December 25th *******************
❓Do you why Is Christmas is celebrated on December 25? Although Christmas was originally intended to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the actual date of that big event is lost to history. In fact, for the first three centuries of Christianity’s existence, Jesus Christ’s birth wasn’t celebrated at all. The first official mention of December 25 as a holiday honouring Jesus’ birthday appears in an early Roman calendar from AD 336. But was Jesus born on December 25 in the first place? Probably not. The Bible doesn’t mention his exact birthday, nor the time of year for that matter, and the Nativity store contains conflicting clues with a December birth. For instance, the presence of shepherds and their sheep suggests a spring birth. One theory is that when church officials settled on December 25 at the end of the third century, they likely wanted the date to coincide with existing pagan festivals honouring Saturn (the Roman god of agriculture) and Mithra (the Persian god of light). That way, it became easier to convince Rome’s pagan subjects to accept Christianity as the empire’s official religion. Despite its popularity today, this theory of Christmas’s origins has its problems. It is not found in any ancient Christian writings, for one thing. It’s not until the 12th century that we find the first suggestion that Jesus’ birth celebration was deliberately set at the time of pagan feasts. We might never know with any certainty why December 25th was chosen for Christmas. *******************
#christmas #december #holidayspirit #wintermagic #montreal #mtl #holidaydecorations #traveldestinations #christmastime #xmas #holidayseason #explorequebec #BonjourQuebec #xmasdecorations #xmasiscoming #quebeccity #quebec

‘Tis the Season
★彡𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀彡★ 📍Québec City, Québec The Story of Christmas Trees (and Charlie Brown) *******************
❓Did you know that the first artificial Christmas trees were made with Goose feathers? These trees were then later refined by a company specializing in …. toilet brushes!!! Artificial trees came about during the 1880s in Germany, after Christmas trees became so popular that Germany’s number of trees noticeably declined. Deforestation became a real problem so to combat this, the Goose Feather artificial tree was created. Goose Feather trees were created using actual goose feathers, which were dyed green and and split, secured by wire to form branches. Those wires were attached to dowels which made up the roots. These became quite popular in Germany and soon spread throughout Europe, and even to North America. However, contrary to real trees, these versions couldn’t hold many ornaments because they weren’t particularly sturdy. In the early 1930s, the Addis Brush Company in Britain realized that there must be a better way to build an Artificial Christmas Tree. The brush company was best known for making the first toilet brush and used those same bristles (dyed green) to create leaves on artificial trees. These could hold significantly more weight than goose feather trees. In the late 1950s and early 1960s silver aluminum pine trees were in vogue, most of which included a color wheel, a rotating plastic disc that projected colored lights onto the tree’s reflective surface. **
Then Charlie Brown arrived and killed the aluminum tree. That’s right, in 1965, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” aired for the first time, and its negative portrayal of aluminum Christmas trees is credited for the aluminum tree market collapse. Most aluminum tree production companies ceased production by 1970. ******************* #holidayspirit #wintermagic #montreal #mtl #holidaydecorations #traveldestinations #christmastime #xmasvibes #xmas #xmas2023 #holidayseason #explorequebec #BonjourQuebec #xmasdecorations #xmasiscoming #winter #winterwonderland

First Snow ★彡𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗼

Cloudy Peaks 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒗𝒆

Into the Badlands
𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 📍Canadian Badlands, Alberta Though the name may seem self-explanatory, early French explorers actually gave the Canadian Badlands region its current name, referring to them as “bad lands to cross” due to this region’s steep-sloped, flat-top mountains and deep, winding gullies. The Canadian Badlands were formed more than 13,000 years ago as a result of glacial meltwater from the Laurentide ice sheet. *******************
❓Did you know that the Canadian Badlands are home to the largest deposits of dinosaur bones in the world? Within the badland region, you will find both Dinosaur Provincial Park and The Royal Tyrrell Museum, just west of Drumheller, a town often referred to as the “Dinosaur Capital of the World” and is also where you’ll find the world’s tallest dinosaur statue, standing at roughly 4.5 times the height of an actual T-rex. The Royal Tyrrell Museum houses one of the best fossil collections in the world (pics 9-10), including five specimens that are Guinness World Record holders. You can see three of them on display at the museum year-round, including the largest marine reptile, the most complete tyrannosaurid skeleton and the best-preserved armoured dinosaur in the world. *******************
#Drumheller #badlands #intothebadlands #canadianbadlands #landscapelovers #landscapephotos #moodyscenes #moodynature #moodyedits #landscapephotograpy #landscape_photography #landscapelovers #moody #naturescenes #moodylandscapes

Dramatic Lakes
𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 📍Gosau Lakes & Gosau Valley, Austria *******************
❓Did you know that, although we are nearly a month away from the shortest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere), several towns and inhabited settlements in the northern hemisphere have already said goodbye to the sun for 2024? Such places experience what is known as a polar night, when the sun is at least six degrees below the horizon for several weeks at a time. Utqiaġvik (Alaska) is home to around 4,500 people, and they haven’t seen the sun since November 18th, and won’t see it again until January 23rd. Longyearbyen, the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000 and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway, hasn’t seen the sun since November 11th, and won’t see it again until January 30th. Though the polar night isn’t as long in Murmansk, Russia, lasting from December 1st to January 10th, the town has a large population of nearly 300,000 people (the largest city in the world that is north of the Arctic Circle). That’s a lot of folks that soon won’t see the sun for a while. *******************
#alpinelakes #austria #gosaulakes #traveltheworld #landscapelovers #landscapephotos #mountainscenery #mountainscape #moodyscenes #moodynature #moodyedits #landscapephotograpy #landscape_photography #landscapelovers #moody

Medieval Castles 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒗

Jagged Peaks 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒗𝒆

Where Grey Skies Meet Blue Waters 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒅

$Where Grey Skies Meet Blue Waters 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 📍Yoho National Park Yoho is one of my favourite National Parks in the Canadian Rockies. Banff and Jasper get most of the spotlight, but Yoho is no less beautiful with its stunning Emerald Lake - with a fraction of the crowds. ******************* ❓Did you know that the first non-indigenous person to set sight on Emerald Lake didn’t do so until 1882? Canadian guide Tom Wilson stumbled upon it by accident when a string of his horses had gotten away, and it was while tracking them that he found himself in the valley leading to the lake. What a beautiful surprise! ******************* . . . . . #emeraldlake #yoho #yohonationalpark #canadianrockies #landscapelovers #landscapephotos #hiking #hikingshots #mountainscenery #mountainscape #mountainphotography #turquoiselakes #moodyscenes #moodynature #moodyedits$

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