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 your hike. To help you get the most out of your hiking adventure in the national park, we put together this Mont Saint-Joseph Trail Winter Hiking Guide.

Disclosure: This page (Mont Saint-Joseph Winter Hiking Guide) may contain product affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, we may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. More details can be found on our disclosure and policies page.

You might also be interested in these pages:
Quebec Hiking Trails that Are Stunning in Winter
Best Winter Hiking Trails in Grands-Jardins National Park
Best Winter Hiking Trails in Mont Mégantic National Park
Best Winter Hiking Trails near Sutton (Eastern townships)

About the Mont Saint-Joseph Trail

The Mont Saint Joseph Trail is one of the most popular hiking trails in Mont-Mégantic National Park. The trail is located in the eastern portion of the park, known as the Observatory Sector. It’s known for its beautiful winter scenery, snow-covered pines, and frozen forests. In our opinion, it’s the most challenging single-summit trail in the park (there are longer and harder trails that combine several summits – more on these below).

Although the trail is neither the longest nor the one with the most elevation, it has the steepest elevation grade of all the trails in the park. For instance, you will gain close to 400 m over the first 2km of the trail (20% slope grade over 2km). The good news is that after this first stretch, the trail becomes significantly flatter as you will be walking along a slowly rising ridgeline.

For more information on the National Park and its other hiking trails, you can check out our guide on the Best Winter Hiking Trails in Mont Mégantic National Park

Location of the Mont Saint-Joseph Trail and Map

Mont Saint-Joseph Trail is located in Mont-Mégantic National Park, which itself is in the eastern townships of Québec, close to the New Hampshire and Maine state borders (link to Google Maps).

How to Get to the Mont Saint-Joseph Trail

Given the remoteness of the national park, the easiest way to reach the Mont Saint-Joseph Trail is by car.

From Montreal: about a 2h45 drive (240 km)

From Sherbrooke: about a 1h15 drive (85 km)

From Québec City: about a 2h45 drive (220 km)

From Burlington (Vermont): about a 3h30 drive (170 miles)

From Augusta (Maine): about a 2h45 drive (130 miles)

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.

Alternatively, you can also reach the park from Montreal by organized transfer via the Navette Nature service, which offers bus trips on various weekend dates. The service rotates between parks, so there might be only one or two trips per park per season.

Mont Saint-Joseph Trail Access, Fees, and Parking

Trailhead & car park location: Both are found here.

Trail access & parking fees: Québec National Park fees apply for day visits to the park. There are no additional fees for parking.

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.

Trail opening hours: Although the trail is technically open at all times, the visitor center is typically only open from 9am – 4pm.  For up-to-date visitor center schedules, we recommend checking the park’s schedule website page before visiting.

Parking lot: The car park is quite large, and there are rarely issues with finding parking.

Facilities: Toilets are available in the visitor center by the car park.

Best Time to Hike The Trail

To experience a proper winter hike and beautiful white landscapes, it’s best to plan your visit between mid-December and mid-March. That being said, there are year-to-year differences regarding the early and late winter snow conditions. If you would like to visit early or late in the winter season, it’s best to check the park conditions first. You can generally find them listed at the top of the national park page. The trail may close during the spring season snow-melt period (dates vary from year to year).

Why Hike in Winter?
– There are generally fewer people on the hiking trails, allowing for a more 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 and Trail Safety Tips

In the absence of any significant recent snowfall, it is highly recommended to wear crampons/traction cleats under your shoes or boots when hiking most trails in this park, particularly any trail that has significant elevation gain. You can rent traction crampons/ice cleats to attach to your boots for 8$ (2024) at the visitor center (located between the car park and the trailhead). If you plan on needing cleats for more than 2 days, you’re probably better off buying your own.

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.

If there was a lot of recent snowfall, you might want to hike with snowshoes instead of ice cleats to help navigate the soft snow. To help you decide what footwear to bring, the national park details the recent snowfall and trail conditions via the “information of the day” button at the top of the page ( e.g. typically either densely packed snow or fresh powdered snow). The visitor center also rents out snowshoes if need be.

Also, always bear in mind that no matter how cold it is at the base of the mountain, it’s going to be even colder at the summit (and windier), so remember to dress appropriately. It’s generally recommended to wear fewer layers to start since you will warm up after a few minutes of hiking. But it’s a great idea to pack some extra warm gear for when you take a break or reach the summit.

Mont Saint-Joseph Trail Details and Maps

Because of the ways the trails are interconnected in the Observatory Sector of the Mont-Mégantic National park, you can create various trail variations and combinations. We will present some of the most popular combinations below. The ascents are roughly the same for all options, it’s intermediate routes and the descents that vary between them.

Option 1: Shortest Variation, Out & Back Trail

This might seem like the simplest route, but it’s particularly steep the entire way. The descent is certainly steep in sections and the use of crampons would be highly recommend. For this reason, and because we generally prefer loop trails to vary the scenery, our preference is to follow Option 2 for hiking the Mont Saint-Joseph trail.

Distance: 7.2 km
Route Type: Out-and-back
Elevation gain: 486 m
Trailhead: Right behind the visitor center
AllTrails rating: (4.6, 412 ratings (2024))
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 2h30-3h

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.

Option 2: Mid-length Variation, Loop Trail, Double Peak Combo

This is the option that we will cover in greater detail below, as it’s the most popular version suggested by the National Park (although surprisingly it doesn’t appear as an option on AllTrails) and it’s also the best option that you can complete in under 4 hours. It’s nonetheless easy to follow on AllTrails, as the marked routes depicted there are identical to those found on the National Park website.

Distance: 10.1 km
Route Type: Loop
Elevation gain: 460 m (cumulative elevation gain: 505 m)
Trailhead: Right behind the visitor center
Duration: Most people complete the trail in about 3h30-4h30

Option 3a: Longest Variation, Full Loop Trail, Double Peak Combo

If you would like to reach another summit while in the national park but don’t have the time to undertake more than one hike, then the Mont Saint-Joseph and Mont Mégantic combo trail might be perfect for you. You essentially be going up one trail to one peak, then taking a connecting path of 4 km to the other, before heading back down. The combo trail is 14.8 km in length, with over 700 m in cumulative elevation gain, and takes on average around 5 hours to complete. For more information on what the Mont Mégantic trail looks like, you can check out our Mont-Mégantic Trail Hiking Guide.

Option 3b: Longest Variation, Loop Trail, Triple Peak Combo

If you are willing to do option 3a, honestly you might as well do option 3b as you will get to hit a third summit. Adding the Victoria peak doesn’t add much extra elevation gain, but it does add about an extra 2 km for a total of 16.7 km and takes an average of 5h30 – 6h to complete.

Other Mont Saint-Joseph Trail Details

– Canine companions: Dogs are not allowed on this trail.

– Summit: Mont Saint-Joseph summit is located at an altitude of 1075 m.

– Number of viewpoints: According to the National Park, the trail has 3 official viewpoints. But we found that there are even more as certain areas of the trail have unobstructed views of the surrounding mountain scenery, and there’s a fourth official viewpoint you can add via a short detour.

– Trail environment: Mostly forested.

– Trail Surface / Technical Trail: The fun thing about winter hiking is that technical trail surfaces (rocks, boulders and tree branches) get buried under the snow. The main challenges that remain are the steep sections that often require ice cleats or crampons.

– Average trail slope grade: 10% (but much steeper during the ascent portion of the loop).

– Trail difficulty level assessment: Moderately Challenging
(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 Saint-Joseph Trail Summary and Description

As we stated above, here we will describe trail Option #2, the loop trail that focuses on the Mont Saint-Joseph summit

First section: The Ascent (Part I) and the Pèlerins Viewpoint

The trailhead is located right behind the visitor center. From there, the trail starts to climb with a steep grade that will remain fairly constant until the 1.3 km mark, at which point you will cross an intersection. Here you have the option to continue straight to stay on the path to Mont Saint-Joseph or go left for a short 0.2 km (each way) section that leads to a belvedere with a nice viewpoint (Belvedere du Soleil).

From this point on the ascent gets even steeper and will remain that way for roughly the next kilometer until you reach a plateau where you will find a wooden cabin (Refuge des Pèlerins) and the trail’s first official viewpoint.

Second section: The Ascent (Part II) and the Mont Saint-Joseph Viewpoint

This was our favorite part of the trail, in part because the weather had briefly cleared up and we had beautiful blue skies, but also because this is where the winter wonderland scenery was at its most magical. This was particularly true in the brief section that ascends steeply between the previous viewpoint and the Mont-Saint-Joseph viewpoint.

After you have enjoyed those stunning frozen landscapes, continue onwards for a few hundred meters until you eventually reach the trail’s second cabin, though a much more modern-looking one (refuge du Mont Saint-Joseph), whose location coincides with the trail’s second official viewpoint.

Third section: The Plateau and the Pic des Crépuscules Viewpoint

The next kilometer is relatively flat along a forested ridgeline (the forest is dense and tall enough to limit any decent views of the distant scenery). The most interesting sight along this section (at least until you reach the third viewpoint at the Pic des Crépuscules), is a signpost illustrating the maximum amount of snowfall received each year since 2005.

There’s definitely no clear pattern as the years were all over the place, but 2024 was clearly on pace to hit a record low with a little over a month of winter left.

Shortly after you reach the Pic des Crépuscules, the trail’s final viewpoint. Unfortunately for us, the weather took a turn and it started snowing heavily, limiting the visibility.

Fourth section: The Return

The return is fairly straightforward and generally not very steep compared to the ascent – you’ll cover about 5.5 kilometers to descend what you climbed in the first 3.5 kilometers. The first forested section you descend through was clearly more frozen and frost-covered than any other section during the trail, which made for an interesting slight change of scenery.

Eventually, you’ll come across a third cabin (Refuge du Col-des-Trois-Sommets), from which point you’ll take a large path that’s shared with cross-country skiers for about one kilometer (though we never came across any despite using this trail section several times, as it is also part of the return leg for the Mont Mégantic Trail).

The final two and a half kilometres of the trail follows a lovely creek that will provide a nice relaxing soundscape to the final portion of the hike.

You will eventually emerge from the forest about 30 feet from where you entered it.

Where to Stay Near Mont Mégantic National Park

Due to the park’s remoteness, you might be inclined to spend the night somewhere nearby. There are several options including cabins within the park and several B&Bs scattered around the park.

If you’re interested in staying within the park, accommodation options range from basic huts to modern Scandinavian-style cabins. It’s best to book ahead, as these get booked several months in advance, particularly for weekend stays.

Alternatively, if you would be more interested in a hotel with nearby restaurants, we can recommend the Microtel Inn & Suites in the nearby town of Lac Mégantic (a 40 minute drive from the National Park).

You might also be interested in these pages:
Quebec Hiking Trails that Are Stunning in Winter
Best Winter Hiking Trails in Grands-Jardins National Park
Best Winter Hiking Trails in Mont Mégantic National Park
Best Winter Hiking Trails near Sutton (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

Travel Insurance
SafetyWing is a travel insurance company that offers comprehensive coverage for travellers. Includes Medical Insurance and Travel Insurance. Primarily geared towards long-term travellers, digital nomads, and expats.

e-Sim cards
Airalo is the world’s first and largest eSIM store with eSIM plans for 200+ countries and regions worldwide. With Airalo eSIMs, travellers can get connected the moment they land at their destination and avoid nasty data roaming charges
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 Saint-Joseph Trail Winter Hiking Guide and that it will prove useful for planning your hiking adventures.

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You might also be interested in these related pages:

Oka National Park – Best Trails and Hiking Guide

Gaspésie’s Most Beautiful Lighthouses (Gaspé Peninsula)

Boucherville Islands National Park – Best Trails and Hiking Guide

Best Hiking Trails near Mont Orford

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