Exploring Éco-Laurentides Park in the Laurentians

If you visit this blog regularly, you probably know that I’m undertaking Rando Québec’s 75S Hiking Challenge, which involves hiking 75 trails across Quebec. Although I’ve done many of the challenge’s hikes in the Laurentians region, I hadn’t yet hiked the Panoramique trail in Éco-Laurentides Park.

In fact, I’d never visited Éco-Laurentides Park before. Since the park has several kilometers of trails, I thought I could go there and do the 75S Challenge hike and explore it at the same time!

I purchased my park pass online and headed to the Laurentians. Éco-Laurentides Park is located in the municipality of Mont-Blanc, just west of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. Despite my many visits to the region, this was my very first time venturing into this part of the Laurentians.

Éco-Laurentides Park protects an accessible public area, representative of the region’s ecological diversity. The area was previously known as Centre Éducatif Forestier (Forestry Education Centre), then Centre touristique et éducatif des Laurentides (Laurentians Tourism and Education Centre), before becoming Parc Éco-Laurentides in 2019.

You can go hiking there in the summer and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter. You can also rent watercraft to enjoy its lakes. But Éco-Laurentides Park is best known for its Refuges Perchés, ready-to-camp cabins built in the trees, where you can spend the night.

I admit I’m curious to try the experience of spending the night in a treehouse, but for now, I was at Éco-Laurentides Park because I wanted to go hiking, so as soon as I arrived, I set off on Le Panoramique Trail.

Le Panoramique Trail is quite short (2 kilometres), but it gradually climbs towards a rocky promontory at the top of which is a lookout point offering a view of the surrounding area (hence the name of the trail).

From the very first few metres, I was immediately enchanted by the surroundings and the layout of the trail. There are a few wooden stairs, footbridges, and ropes to help with the climb in the steeper sections.

After a few hundred metres, I came to a junction, offering two ways to reach the summit: a difficult trail and an intermediate one. Obviously, since I like a challenge, I chose the difficult option.

The climb continued to be steep, but since the trail is short, I felt like I reached the lookout point fairly quickly. At the summit, I sat down for a few moments to enjoy the view of Lac du Cordon and the surrounding mountains, including Mont Tremblant.

I descended from lookout by taking the intermediate trail. This one was a little wider, and the descent was gentle. In no time, I was back at the very beginning of Le Panoramique trail. I had completed another hike of the 75S Challenge!

But since this hike was short and quick, I decided to continue my exploration of Éco-Laurentides Park. And since I was already at the beginning of Tour du Lac Trail, I decided to follow that one.

As its name suggests, the Tour du Lac (Around the Lake) Trail circles Lac du Cordon. It is 4.9 kilometres long and allows you to appreciate the park’s beautiful mixed forest, while also offering some charming views of the lake.

I usually prefer more challenging trails, but I really enjoyed my hike on Tour du Lac Trail. Perhaps because it is also very well-maintained, with several markers and a few footbridges and boardwalks allowing you to cross small streams and wetlands.

It might also be because this trail was very quiet (I encountered very few hikers) and offered several viewpoints of the lake. Despite the gloomy weather, the Laurentian landscape was truly beautiful.

Tour du Lac trail is the starting point for several more challenging trails in the park, including the Mine Trail and the L’Aventurier Trail. However, I decided to continue along the Tour du Lac Trail, telling myself that I really should come back one day to explore the Éco-Laurentides Park in depth.

While I was almost back at the visitor centre, I decided to follow one last trail. L’Aquatique Trail is a one-kilometre trail that circles a small lake. Long floating footbridges allow you to walk right on the lake. A really cool way to observe this aquatic ecosystem up close!

When I finally returned to the visitor centre, my starting point, I had hiked more than 8 kilometres, with an elevation gain of 400 metres. I had completed one more hike as part of the 75S Challenge, but more importantly, I had discovered a superb place to hike in the Laurentians. I already have to come back to visit the Éco-Laurentides Park!