Known as “The Mountain”, Parc du Mont-Royal sits high above Montréal, offering an easy escape into nature from the city below. Parc du Mont-Royal is Montréal’s version of NYC’s Central Park and was, in fact, designed by the same landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted. The 200+ hectare park is a haven for outdoor activity year round, from biking and boating in the warmer months to ice skating and snow shoeing in the colder ones.
You can get to the park through a combination of the Metro (Mont-Royal station) and the bus (#11), but we opted to walk. We really enjoyed walking through the city and the campus of McGill University but were noticeably hot and slightly tired by the time we arrived at the Peel Street entrance. And we were blissfully unaware of the additional uphill walking that would be required from there.
The park is nicknamed “the mountain” for a reason. From the park’s entrance, there is nowhere to go but up. If you decide to get to the top by foot, you can either take a winding path or a more direct staircase. We opted for the stairs, and about 15 minutes of huffing and puffing later, we were at the top. Alternatively, the trail takes about 30-45 minutes to walk up, depending on your pace.
It was definitely worth the climb though. The views from the Belvedere Kondiaronk lookout at the top were amazing. You can see all of Montréal and the Saint Lawrence River beyond it, and the Monteregian Hills beyond that.
The Chalet du Mont-Royal is also found at the top of the mountain. The chalet was built from 1931-32 in the French Beaux-Arts and Arts and Crafts architectural styles. From the Belvedere Kondiaronk, the outside of the stone building is not particularly noteworthy. But the inside features stunning exposed beams, intriguing carved wooden squirrels, and a large stone fireplace. Oddly, the building is almost completely empty. The expansive room has a few tables and chairs around the outside but is largely open floorspace. There is a little cafe and a gift shop, but strangely no bathrooms inside. I found myself wondering what the purpose of the building was, other than to provide an escape from the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter.
We got some drinks and ice cream at the cafe to cool down and refuel and then headed out to walk to Lac aux Castors (Beaver Lake). On our way, we passed a field filled with huge stone statues. These sculptures were part of the 1964 International Sculpture Symposium in which 12 artists from around the world were invited to create a sculpture in just 26 days. One of the statues was taken down in 1986 due to safety concerns but the other 11 statues can still be seen today between the Smith House and Beaver Lake.
We arrived at the lake and were somewhat underwhelmed by it. The man-made, four leaf clover shaped lake is pretty but less impressive than I expected. It was relatively small and renting a rowboat to row around the little lake struck me as kind of silly. I can see how it would be an incredible place to ice skating in the winter, but it felt like a stretch to try to make it a haven of water activities in the warmer months. But for sure it is a great place to gather or go for a stroll. There is plenty of lawn space for a picnic, games, or a nap and tons of benches to sit and relax and enjoy the views.
We got some drinks at the cafe inside the pavilion and then grabbed a shady spot under a tree to relax for a while. We read, recharged, and people-watched for about half an hour before starting the trek down the mountain, checking out the pretty waterfall on our way out.
We really loved exploring Parc du Mont-Royal. The woodsy trails, open green spaces and small but pretty lake make this park a wonderful natural oasis in an urban area. And the views of Montréal are breathtaking. It is well worth the effort to walk to the top to enjoy the views and access all that the park has to offer.
