The Laurentians are home to many of our favorite hiking areas in souther Quebec, and right in the heart of the region lies one of our favorite trails: the Mont King and Mont Condor Loop Trail. Located between Montreal and Mont-Tremblant, the trail is neither too difficult nor too easy and boasts an impressive number of panoramic viewpoints for a trail of its length. To help you discover this beautiful trail near Val David, we put together this Mont King and Mont Condor Hiking Guide, which will include details on the trail difficulty, how long you should plan to complete the hike, and the various viewpoints the trail offers.
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Mont King Trail Location and Map
Mont King is located within the Val-David-Val-Morin Regional Park. The park is located in the town of Val David, which lies between the larger towns of Sainte-Adele and Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts.
How to Get to Mont King & Mont Condor
The easiest way to Mont King and the Val-David-Val-Morin Regional Park is by car.
From Montreal: about a 1h20 drive (90 km).
From the Mont-Tremblant area: about a 35-to-45-minute drive, depending if you are leaving from the town of Mont-Tremblant (south of Lac Mercier) or the ski resort area (north of Lac Mercier).
From Ottawa: about a 2h10 drive (210 km).
If you need to book a rental vehicle for your hiking excursion, we highly recommend using Discover Cars to get the best rates on your rental in Montreal.
We also highly recommend Airalo (eSIM card) for your connectivity needs when travelling abroad. Airalo is the world’s first and largest eSIM store with eSIM plans for 200+ countries and regions worldwide.
Mont King and Mont Condor Access, Fees, and Parking
Trailhead & car park location: Both are found here.
Trail access & parking fees: 10$ daily fee to access the trails (2024). You can pre-purchase your tickets online here.
Trail opening Hours: 24 hours*
*This is only true if you paid for your trail access online. Otherwise, you will have to wait for the visitor center to open to pay your trail access fees in person.
We also recommend checking out the park’s official website (secteur Dufresne) to see if there are any temporary trail closures.
Parking lot: The car park is fairly large, but it can fill up fairly quickly on weekends given the multitude of trails available in the park. We recommend arriving early.
Facilities: Toilets are available in the park’s Visitor Center. A few dry toilets are also available along the trail.
Mont King and Mont Condor Trail Details and Map
The Mont King and Mont Condor trail is part of a large network of trails located within the Val-David-Val-Morin Regional Park. You could easily spend hours exploring all the trails, but we will focus on the park’s most popular trail: the Mont King and Mont Condor loop trail. We suggest to hike the loop trail in the counter-clockwise direction. This direction will ensure that you are climbing up (and not down) the steepest and most technical sections of the trail and will allow you to enjoy most of the viewpoints during the second half of the loop trail.
Distance: 6.1 km
Route Type: Loop
Elevation gain: 135 m (cumulative elevation gain: 214 m)
Start point: Car Park
AllTrails rating: (4.6, 1223 ratings (2024))
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 1h40 – 2h10
Access Fees: 10$ (2024)
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.
Other Mont King and Mont Condor Trail Details
– Canine companions: Dogs are permitted on this trail but must always be on a leash. (dogs are not permitted on the park’s cycling trails or on the park’s winter cross-country ski trails)
– Summit: The Mont Condor summit is at an altitude of 479 meters, whereas the Mont King summit is at an altitude of 483 meters.
– Trail environment: Forest – you will be under tree cover for most of the trail.
– Number of viewpoints: The trail boasts no less than 7 viewpoints, most of which offer 180-degree panoramic views.
– Trail Surface / Technical Trail: This trail has some moderately technical sections, particularly during the first half of the trail (counter-clockwise direction), where you will have to navigate very rocky path sections with a few large boulders to walk between or over. The second half of the trail follows mostly flat surfaces (with occasional rocks and tree roots) that are easy to walk on.
– Average trail slope grade: 7% (overall this is an average slope on the mild side)
– Trail difficulty level: Moderate (for the most part the trail is easy, with a few moderately challenging sections).
(based on our personal assessment, taking into account the trail length, slope grade and trail surface – 5-point difficulty scale: Very easy, Easy, Moderate, Moderately Challenging, Challenging)
Mont King and Mont Condor Trail Description and Summary
After ascending a flat rocky surface from the visitor’s center, the trail starts through a narrow path between coniferous trees.
Not long after you begin, you will come across some very large boulders. These are known as “glacial erratics”, large boulders that were transported by glacial ice over distances of hundreds of kilometres following the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago.
After that, for most of the first half of the trail, you will alternate between easy flat sections, mild ascents, and some rocky (and occasionally tricky) sections. We found that these rocky sections added a little adventure to the hike and weren’t too difficult to navigate.
Once you’ve gone through the “gauntlet” of rocks, the path evens out and you can walk easily for a while on a smooth surface.
Eventually, the trail will start to gain elevation and you will have a final steep (but short, about 0.4 km) ascent to reach the first two viewpoints on Mont King. Along the way, there will be a few switchbacks to reach the summit.
The first viewpoint is partially obstructed by foliage (not shown here), but the second viewpoint only a few hundred feet further is quite spectacular.
After the viewpoint, you’ll go downhill for a little bit before following a long fairly flat plateau as you walk along Mont Condor Est’s crest.
Eventually, you will start to hit several viewpoints with views to the south and southwest (one of which has a large wooden belvedere and another with several picnic tables from which to enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery). As you can see below, the mountain scenery is particularly beautiful during autumn.
From this point, we highly recommend two short detours from the AllTrails trail to reach additional viewpoints. These detours will add about 0.8 km to the trail length without any significant additional elevation gain:
1) The first is from the large wooden belvedere next to the dry toilets. From here, take a short 5-minute walk to reach another viewpoint along Mont Condor’s northern ridge (which provides views to the North and Northeast).
We think the beautiful scenery is definitely worth the short detour.
2) You’ll see this detour advertised as “L’aiguille” as you near the end of the trail
We only visited this viewpoint during a winter visit to the park, which serves as the perfect segway for the next section of our guide.
Hiking the Mont King and Mont Condor Trail in Winter
The Mont King and Mont Condor Trail is such a fun trail to hike during the winter. And the scenery is quite superb and magical.
Things to know about hiking the Mont King and Mont Condor trail in winter:
– For most of the winter the path will be on compacted snow. Ice cleats are recommended, particularly for the steeper sections (see Winter Packing List below for further details).
– If there was recent snowfall, snow shoes might be necessary. If you are unsure, we suggest asking staff at the visitor center for advice regarding what equipment is best suited to the current trail conditions.
– If you don’t have your own, ice cleats and snowshoes can be rented from the visitor center.
– The path to follow slightly differs from the summer trail and AllTrails map (though you can still use to app to follow your overall progression along the trail). In winter, to do the Mont King and Mont Condor loop you need to follow the following trails C – F – E – C (counter-clockwise direction).
– Access to the trails is slightly more expensive than in summer, at 12.50$ (2024).
Why Hike in Winter?
– There are generally fewer people on the hiking/snowshoeing trails, allowing for more a peaceful and enjoyable experience.
– Compacted snow generally makes the trail easier to walk on and removes the difficulties associated with walking over rocks, boulders and tree roots.
– The scenery is very different than in any other season but is no less beautiful.
Winter Hiking Packing List
Crampons / Ice Cleats – These are a must-have to help you with those steep ascents/descents or navigate icy trail conditions.
External Battery – Cold weather significantly affects cell phone battery drainage. Best to be prepared with an external power source to recharge your phone if needed.
Hiking poles – These can be particularly useful in winter, especially when not wearing any crampons or ice cleats.
Hand warmers – if you are like us and often remove your gloves to take pictures, having little hotties around care be hand life savers in freezing weather.
All Trails subscription – 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.
Trail Variants and Alternatives
The most popular variant of the Mont King and Mont Condor trail is a shorter one that entirely skips Mont King. Although it skips the most spectacular viewpoint, you are still left with 5 great viewpoints (including the suggested detours from above) on a trail that is only 4.8 km long.
Mont King and Mont Condor Trail Hiking Trail Tips
– The trail can be confusing to follow at times, as several trails crisscross each other during the trail, so we recommend having the AllTrails map downloaded to your phone.
– 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. During nice winter days, the parking lot can fill up quickly due to the amount of cross-country skiing trails available within the park.
– 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. Not to mention that there are a lot of private properties around the trail.
– Best time to visit: We tend to prefer hiking in this area from mid-August to early November. The weather will be pleasant and the likelihood of being harassed by bugs is significantly reduced. Moreover. Note that trails are quite busy during the weekends of the leaf-peeping season (typically from late September to mid-October), so it’s best to arrive early or to try to come on a weekday.
Alternatively, as described above a winter visit can be equally pleasant.
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.
Some of Our Other Nearby Favorite Hiking Trails
We haven’t hiked a lot of trails in the immediate vicinity of Val-David and Val Morin, but we have done many that are 30-40 minutes away.
One fun trail is located near Sainte-Adèle to the south in the Rivière Doncaster Park. There are several trails here, and you can combine several of them together. One great option is this loop trail on AllTraills: it’s mostly flat as it follows a valley river but also has some elevation gain along one portion that heads to a viewpoint.
One riverside trail is well-manicured, and suitable for strollers. The rest of the trails are more like your standard variety hiking trail, with narrow and mostly flat surfaces but with some rocky segments with tree roots.
There are also many great hiking around the Mont-Tremblant area to the north of Val David. One of our easy favourites is a very beautiful lakeside trail known as the Lac Mercier Trail. The trail is part of the longer Le P’tit Train du Nord trail, a multipurpose recreational rail trail that runs for 200km between the towns of Saint-Jérome and Mont-Laurier.
There are so many great hiking around the Mont-Tremblant area. Another of favorite trails around Mont-Tremlant is the La Coulée loop trail. The trail takes you to two fantastic viewpoints followed by a beautiful lakeside path.
Another one of our favorites is the combined Montagne Verte and Nez-de-l’Indien trail. This trail boasts some of the best panoramic 360-degree viewpoints of the entire area. This trail is free to hike and is located a few kilometres west of Mont-Tremblant near the village of Labelle.
For a more complete list of our favorite trails in the area check out our guide on the Best Hiking Trails near Mont-Tremblant.
Want to Discover More Hiking Trails In Southern Québec?
You might be interested in these pages:
Best Hiking Trails Near Mont-Tremblant
Best Hiking Trails Near Montreal
Best Hiking Trails in the Eastern Townships
Quebec Hiking Trails that Are Stunning in Winter
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
Travel Insurance
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e-Sim cards
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eSIMS are a sustainable alternative to single-use SIM cards – they are 100% digital, require less energy to produce and be re-used rather than disposed of.
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 Mont King and Mont Condor Hiking Guide and that it will prove useful for planning your hiking trip.
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