La Coulée (La Roche et La Corniche)- An 8.6 km Hike in Mont Tremblant National Park

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Near the end of August, I headed up for a few solo days in Mont Tremblant National Park. We had hiked the Fall Colours Trail near Mont Tremblant Village before, but I had never visited the park, so I was excited to check it out!

There are all sorts of ways to stay in the park, but because I was going on my own I decided to keep it easy and inexpensive and just book myself a campsite.

I stayed in the Diable sector, and it was amazing. Not only was it gorgeous, but it had EVERYTHING to get into. Beautiful beaches, stunning views, tons of hiking trails, and gorgeous lakes for paddling.

Planning your activities before you go is a good idea, because there are different sectors in Mont Tremblant National Park and they’re pretty far apart! The Diable sector is closest to us here in Ottawa.

One of the hikes I was considering was in the Pimbina sector. While I was there I plugged the address into my phone for directions and realized it was a 45 minute drive from where I was in the Diable sector.

So I stuck with the trails that were a bit closer, and had an amazing trip. The first trail I hiked was La Coulée. At least I think that’s the best name to call it by! I actually hiked a combination of trails- La Roche, La Coulée, and La Corniche.

Both La Roche and La Corniche have stunning lookouts as their destination points. La Coulée connects the two trails together, and by walking the bike path back to where I had parked, I was able to hike the trails as a loop.

Getting There

I decided to start La Coulée from the parking lot for La Roche Trail. This parking lot was super close to the visitor’s centre, where you can buy a map for just $3. It was also huge, with room for at least a hundred cars. You can use these coordinates to get there: 46.329127, -74.499360.

At the entrance of the parking lot there was a huge wooden map posted.

The trailhead was near the back of the parking lot, right next to the outhouse. One really great thing about my last visit to Mont Tremblant National Park was that they had hand sanitizer everywhere. On each outhouse, there was a bottle right outside for folks to use.

The park is also testing out allowing dogs on certain trails, and they have supplied poop bags at different trailheads as well. The trailhead had a bike rack which is perfect for anyone who wanted to bike between the two trailheads instead of walking.

La Roche

La Roche started out super wide, and headed uphill immediately. As I hiked along, the trail began to thin out a bit, but this transition meant the trail was no longer as wide as a road, and instead as wide as… a logging road.

A small creek flowed down the forest floor on my left hand side.

The path was a bit rocky, but the rocks were small and easy to navigate. I reached the first trail split after hiking only 900 metres. A clearly visible sign pointed out that I needed to head to my left to stick with La Roche.

Not long after, a short bridge brought me over the creek I had been travelling beside.

There were no trail markers along the path. But the trail was so wide that it would have been impossible to lose it.

I continued to hike uphill, and after 1.4 km the grade got even steeper. But, after hiking just over 2 km I got reception back on my phone, so it was worth it! There were actually little pictures of cell phone son some of the trail signs for La Roche, so I figured that these must be used to denote trails that can bring you to cell phone reception, since it’s really spotty in the park.

The Lookout

At the 2.25 km mark I reached a second split in the trail. Here, a sign told me that La Coulée was to my right, and the La Roche Lookout was straight ahead of me.

Naturally I stopped at the lookout. It was less than 200 metres from the split. And it was gorgeous! I was so happy. It’s not often you get views like this around Ottawa, so I was thrilled.

There was a large viewing platform with benches that backed onto a big rock- this would definitely be a great spot to stop and have lunch.

The trail had been very similar the whole way up. Well-groomed with easy footwork, this is one that I would call a walking trail if there weren’t so much UPHILL-ness to it.

La Coulée- I Respectfully Disagree

Heading back to La Coulée, the trail changed immediately into more of a “hiking” trail. It was far thinner, a bit rockier, and had a few more roots popping up here and there.

On the map, La Coulée was listed as being “difficult” while La Roche and La Corniche were listed as intermediate. I think that must just be because La Coulée wasn’t as well groomed/maintained as the other two trails. In terms of actual, physical work, walking up La Roche was definitely harder than traversing La Coulée.

There were way more trail markers along La Coulée to help keep me on track. The little arrows were consistently pointed in the direction that I needed to go.

I traversed a few gentle hills, and then after hiking just under 3 km the trail headed down a steep hill. The trail had been beautifully designed with switchbacks so that I didn’t have to head straight downhill. Nonetheless, I was still very happy to have my hiking poles on this section of trail.

I could tell from looking at the forest floor that a lot of water had flowed through sections of the trail, and that it likely got very wet and mucky in the spring.

La Corniche

Quickly, I arrived at the trail split for La Corniche. I came down another small hill and read the sign that said La Corniche lookout was to my left. At this point I had hiked roughly 4.2 km.

Again it was only a few hundred metres to the lookout, and it was gorgeous. If I had to pick one of the two lookouts, I would have picked La Roche. But trust me when I say that the views from La Corniche were nothing to sneeze at. A similar large platform with benches had been built, and I happily stuck around for a while soaking in the views.

It had only take me an hour and twenty minutes to reach this second lookout.

Then, I started to head back to the trailhead for La Corniche. This trail was very similar to the one that had brought me up La Roche- wide, rocks here and there, easy to follow. The major difference was that this time, instead of heading uphill the whole time, I was heading downhill.

On the way back the trail meandered alongside another small creek before a bridge took me over it, right next to a small waterfall.

I made it to the parking lot in no time, after hiking 6.24 km.

Here, there were washrooms and a bike stand as well. The parking lot was about the same size as La Roche, with room for about a hundred cars.

Heading Back

Originally, I thought that I would have to walk along the road in order to get back to the parking lot for La Roche. But on my way to the road, I realized there was a bike path that ran right beside it. So I took that the whole way back. It was so flat and smooth that I decided to just take out my lunch and eat it as I walked along. On the way back, I caught a beautiful view across Lac Monroe. Even the ROADS in Mont Tremblant National Park get you a great view! I also walked past a beach, a park, and the visitor’s centre.

Distance and Time

By the time I made it back to my car, I had hiked 8.6 km. It only took me 2 hours and 15 minutes.

I think that by hiking the loop counter-clockwise I had saved myself some elevation on La Coulée. Hiking in that direction, I spent quite a bit of time going downhill. Much better than going uphill!

Originally, I was kind of intimidated about hiking these trails because in the guide book they were listed as being fairly difficult. And on La Roche there was definitely enough elevation gain to have me huffing and puffing. But all in all, these trails were fairly easy. And I spent about 2.5 km on completely flat ground, walking between the parking lots.

Plus, the views were stunning! I can’t wait to head back to Mont Tremblant National Park.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map and Elevation Gain

Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.

Gear I Brought

• Wool Socks
• Hiking Boots
• Hiking Poles
• Mountain Warehouse Day Pack
• Nalgene
• First Aid Kit with Tick Removal Tool
• SOL 2 Person Bivvy
• Map
• Compass
• Snacks