﻿This is the view of Montreal that gets all the attention. And sure,
it gives an excellent picture, it’s easily accessible from downtown, and there’s a
chalet there. But there are lots of other great views from Mount Royal that are worth seeing,
which we’re going to cover in this video. This is a walking route that we did in December
2020, covering four main scenic LOOKouts on Mount Royal as well as lots of secondary views.
We start by going to the Cartier monument on the east side of the mountain, which
is a very festive place in warmer months. Instead of following the Olmstead Trail, which
winds its way up the mountain, we take smaller trails that cut directly to our first destination,
the Camillien-Houde Lookout. These trails can be very icy in the winter.
The nearby road is less icy but there are more, well, cars there.
This first lookout shows the east end of the city, including the Ubisoft building in Mile-End, the
former incinerator near Laurier Park, the Olympic Village and Stadium near Parc Maisonneuve, and to
the far right you can also see the Jacques-Cartier Bridge and Mont-Saint-Hilaire.
Continuing on, the road is particularly bad for pedestrians here so we’re taking the stairs. These
are well-used despite being officially closed in winter, but definitely be careful. Next we get
back on the Olmstead Trail, which is smoother and better maintained than the secondary trails.
Our next stop is the Mount Royal Cross, which was put up in the 1920s and inspired by a much earlier
cross set up there by one of the founders of Montreal. It gets lit up at night and is very
visible from a lot of places in the city, which makes it cool to see up close.
Next up is the Mount Royal Chalet with the famous view of downtown from the Kondiaronk Lookout.
You can see all of the downtown skyscrapers like Place Ville-Marie and 1000 de La Gauchetière.
In addition to mountains in Quebec, on a clear day you can even see some American peaks.
From here we follow the Olmstead Trail, passing by Beaver Lake and a pretty impressive sledding hill,
ending up at Cote-des-Neiges Road, with the goal of getting to Westmount Summit,
the second peak of Mount-Royal. Unfortunately the independent city of Westmount
doesn’t make this entirely easy, because they closed off the stairwell that we wanted to take.
We find our way, going downhill before climbing back up on a road full of fancy houses.
You can tell you’re in the richest census tract in Montreal, with an average household income of
one million dollars. Westmount is associated with the old anglophone elite, but it’s not entirely
English. Around 30% of people in Upper Westmount have French as their first official language.
From Westmount’s Summit Lookout you can see the southwest of Montreal,
including Westmount Square, the new Champlain Bridge, the Saint Lawrence River,
the condo towers of Nun’s Island, and the new McGill superhospital.
It’s now a pretty long trek to the next lookout in Outremont. We walk around Summit
Woods to start descending into Cote-des-Neiges, where we get tea from a cafe to warm up.
From here it’s another climb, going between the University of Montreal and the Notre Dame des
Neiges cemetery, up the third and final peak of Mount Royal in Outremont. There are a few
false alarms, where it looks like you’re at the lookout but you’re not actually there yet.
The Outremont Lookout is probably the least highly trafficked of the four we’ve featured.
Apparently there used to be a ski hill here, which really makes us wonder why they decided
to get rid of it. Leave a comment if you know anything about this.
From this view you can see the north of Montreal, including the Sanctuaire condo complex in
Cote-des-Neiges, the St. Joseph Catholic Church in the Town of Mont-Royal, the Garment District,
and towers in Park Extension. Beware of the slippery rocks if you come here in winter.
That’s our last major lookout but we’re not quite done this walk yet. From here there’s
a path to descend into Outremont, which includes a pretty good view looking northeast into Mile-End.
At the bottom of the trail you’re in Upper Outremont, the second richest census tract
in Montreal with an average household income of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Unlike Upper Westmount, which was around 30% francophone, this wealthy area has about 85%
of its residents speaking French as their first official language. Outremont and Westmount have a
lot of interesting similarities and differences that we might cover in a later video.
This route took us around four hours of actual walking time but we were wearing
clunky snow boots so if you wanted to go faster it wouldn’t be too hard,
although again, keep in mind that some parts of the trails can be pretty slippery.
If you want to use public transit for any part of this trip, the 11 Ridgewood bus stops
at the Camillien-Houde Lookout and it goes very close to the Westmount lookout.
We hope this gives you some walking motivation for 2021. If you have any experiences or
recommendations for good hikes or views on Mount Royal, let us know in the comments.