Hiking in Chutes Monte-à-Peine-et-des-Dalles Regional Park in Lanaudière

It’s been a few weeks since I went out for a hike. Since my father passed away, I didn’t really have the energy or the desire to do so. But summer has slowly given way to fall and life is getting back to normal, despite everything. One beautiful Sunday, I decided that going outside could do me some good, and I headed to the Parc régional des Chutes Monte-à-Peine-et-des-Dalles in Lanaudière region.

This regional park has been on my bucket list for a while. It’s part of the 75S challenge, a hiking challenge that highlights 75 trails in Quebec. Plus, I really enjoyed my last hike in Lanaudière, done as part of this challenge, a hike that allowed me to discover the Swaggin and Bouleau waterfalls. I couldn’t wait to see other falls in the region!

The regional park has three entrances and my initial plan was to go to the Saint-Jean-de-Matha entrance. But a closed road took me on a long detour, and I decided to change my plans and access the park via the Sainte-Béatrix entrance. I still intended to hike the Waterfalls Loop, the trail to follow as part of the 75S challenge. I was only going to hike it in the opposite direction to what I had originally planned. After paying my entrance fee, I set off on the trail.

As its name suggests, the regional park features the Monte-à-Peine and Dalles Falls, as well as the Desjardins Falls, all of which are found on the L’Assomption River. The latter runs through the park for 5 kilometres, dropping nearly 80 metres on its way from the Laurentian Mountains to the St. Lawrence Valley.

The first waterfall on my route was Dalles Falls. I followed La Gorge Loop, which goes around the falls, passing over two bridges. At this point, the L’Assomption River has to make its way through a narrow channel, creating a series of rapids.

The raging river and the pretty forest where fall colours were starting to appear immediately enchanted me. I had barely started it, but I knew I was going to love this hike.

After completing the La Gorge Loop, I continued my hike by following Desjardins Trail. This trail mainly follows the river, which becomes much more placid as you move away from Dalles Falls. The trail also becomes a little more monotonous, as it runs alongside a few fields.

After more than a kilometre, the trail crosses Castors Creek, then plunges back into the forest. It climbs in switchbacks to the top of a plateau, then arrives at an intersection with the L’Érablière (Maple Grove) Trail. I decided to follow this one.

At nearly 2 kilometres long, L’Érablière Trail moves away from the river and goes through the pretty mixed forest, where fallen leaves were starting to accumulate on the ground. It has a few slight climbs and descents, but overall, it was pretty easy to follow. It also offered me some nice viewpoints of the landscape.

L’Érablière Trail eventually joins the Interprétation Trail, which took me back down from the plateau, towards the river. I eventually joined Desjardins Trail again, and I came across a pretty covered bridge over the river, a bridge named in honour of the actor Jean-Pierre Masson (as the Sainte-Béatrix region was used as a filming location for the popular Quebec’s TV series Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut).

From this point, I started to follow the L’Assomption River again. After a few metres, I started to get my first views of the Monte-à-Peine waterfall. And it is truly impressive!

The waterfall’s particular name comes from the time when there were no passable roads to the village of Saint-Félix-de-Valois. Since the waterfall represented an obstacle on the waterway, travelers were forced to portage. They had to climb the steep slope on foot, carrying their luggage on their backs. This place began to be called Côte Monte-à-Peine (which could roughly be translated to Painful to Climb Hill). By extension, the waterfall eventually began to bear the same name.

It is a little easier to climb along the waterfall today, via a series of stairs that allow you to see it up close. A pretty bridge (the longest in the entire park) also crosses it.

The regional park had impressed me up until now, but I had not yet finished my hike! I continued to follow Desjardins Trail, which continued to run alongside the L’Assomption River. The trail seemed a little steeper at this point, to my great pleasure.

I passed by another waterfall, Desjardins Falls, which can be seen from above. The falls are named after the former owner of a mill that was built near the river to use the hydraulic energy of the current.

After the fall, I still had over a kilometre to go to complete the loop that would take me back to the start of L’Érablière Trail. Once I reached that point, all I had to do was follow the portion of Desjardins Trail along the large fields again to return to Dalles Falls, my starting point.

In total, I covered over 9 kilometres, with an elevation gain of 383 metres. And after the last few rather emotional weeks, getting out of the house on such a beautiful day did me the world of good! It reminded me that it’s important not to forget what makes me happy. Looking forward to the next hikes!

***The Waterfalls Loop is part of the 75S Challenge, a hiking challenge managed by Rando Québec. To learn more about the challenge or to follow my progress, visit this page.***