Mont Morissette- A 7.6 km Hike in Outaouais

This hike is part of the Adventure Report Ottawa Hiking Challenge! If you hike this trail, you’re officially working on the Views Edition!

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Adventure Report Ottawa Hiking Challenge Route Specification: Hike Trail #1 and Trail #2.  

We’ve been wanting to explore Quebec a little more recently. We aren’t super familiar with the area though, and didn’t really know where to start! So when Tourisme Outaouais offered to host us for the day and told us about Mont Morissette, we were super excited!

Mont Morissette is a little mountain with amazing views. The trails are open year round, and dogs are welcome too. At the official summit, there’s a viewing platform, as well as a cabin with a wood burning fireplace. A little further down the trail, there’s a beautiful observation tower right next to a very cool fire tower. Both of which you can climb to get 360° views. Yes please!

Check out this view!

The hiking trails at Mont Morissette were quite easy- not a lot of work for exceptional views. Not to mention, you can drive right up to the towers if you’re not in a hiking mood. Although I personally can’t really imagine that.

There are three different trails in the area (named Trails 1, 2, and 3), which you can decide to put together however you’d like! The shortest (#1) is only 2.1 km, while the longest (#3) is 5.1 km We ended up putting Trails 1 and 2 together to get a bit of a longer hike, and check out all the coolest spots along the trails.

A map of the trails at Mont Morissette Regional Park.

Getting There

To get there, we googled directions to “Mont Morissette Regional Park.” The park is about an hour and a half from Ottawa, but it’s a really easy drive. We headed out alongside the Gatineau River, and then drove through fields and farms for… a long time! There were a few great looking vegetable stands that we had to drive past because the baby was sleeping.

You can use these coordinates to get there: 46.219479, -76.099744.

The park was really easy to find, because the parking lot was right beside the road, with a big sign indicating we had arrived. Parking was free!

The Trailhead

We spent a bit of time getting ready at the car, and then headed over to the trailhead. The trailhead was also easy to find, because there was a big sign and a map posted there. Facing the trails, on our left hand side, was a gravel road that could be used to drive up to the towers.

There was a sign posted letting us know that it was hunting season, and that wearing bright colours was a good idea (so that any potential hunters could see you).

Sign posted by the trailhead for Trail 1 and Trail 2.

Trail 1 and Trail 2 share a trailhead, while the trailhead for Trail 3 was across the road. We grabbed a paper map from the trailhead before heading out.

A few metres onto the trail, there was an outhouse. Here, the two trails split. Trail 1 headed off to our left, towards the towers. Wanting to take the long way, we headed to our right to hop onto Trail 2.

Both trails were well marked with nice big signs, so we were very confident we were headed in the right direction.

Great signage keeping us on track (trail!).

Trail Markers

The trail was well-worn, and was quite easy to follow, even with a bunch of fallen leaves and pine needles down on the forest floor. There were also trail markers that were posted often, so those helped us stay on track as well.

Our hike began with a series of gentle hills, to help us get warmed up. For the most part, we were losing elevation. The terrain was really easy to navigate because there were some roots and rocks, but a lot of sections were flat, and we traversed those quickly.

We had hiked only 400 metres when we came to the first map posted along the trail. There were a few more of these posted along the way to help us know where on the trail we were, which was nice.

Trail 2 was a pretty easy hike!

The Beaver Pond

The small hills continued, and after hiking 0.7 km we found ourselves passing under a set of hydro lines, and over a wider track that looked like it was used for ATVs. There was a sign right across the track, so it was easy for us to know exactly where to re-enter the forest.

Carrying on, we hopped over a tiny creek, then the trail doubled back and we crossed over it again. Soon, we came upon a beaver pond in the woods, and the trail began to wind around it. We crossed over a few small foot bridges which helped us keep our feet dry.

The hiking continued to be nice and easy, and we ambled along enjoying our walk through the woods. There continued to be gently rolling hills as we hiked along, and I was thinking that this had been a really easy hike so far, considering we were supposed to reach a summit at some point. Shouldn’t we be going up?

On Our Way

It started to feel as though we were getting a little bit more of an incline after we had hiked 3.5 km Here, a second map was posted.

At the 4.3 km mark, the trail crossed an area where the trees had been cleared and it was open to the sky. The trail continued to go up after this. We did a bit of huffing and puffing but it really wasn’t too steep. Just under 5 km in, we came to another open stretch of land. We had to head off to our right to re-enter the forest. We also started to wonder when we might meet up with Trail 1, because the map had said Trail 2 was only 4.6 km long.

At just OVER 5 km, we reached the trail split where they joined. There was a third map posted here. An ATV track ran between to two trails, but there were little “no hiking” trail markers on either side of us, so we knew not to hop on that track. Right across from us, there was a sign indicating that the towers were in that direction.

This way!

The Summit

Trail 1 began to ascend a bit, and 200 metres along, Trail 1 split off in two directions. To our left was a lookout, and straight ahead of us were the towers. Not wanting to miss a thing, we wanted to head out to the lookout and then double back to get to the towers.

We arrived at the summit of Mont Morissette after hiking a total of 5.5 km Here, there was a little outhouse, and a four season cabin with a wood burning stove. And a fire pit! And a ton of chopped wood.

There was a viewing platform not too far from the cabin, and we stopped for a look. The view was stunning!

Looking out from the viewing platform at the summit.

There was another map posted on the cabin, and beside it, signs announcing that there was a shortcut to the towers. We decided to take the shortcut instead of heading back on the trail we had come in on. The shortcut was very well-traveled, and after a few more little hills, we popped out onto a road that led up to the towers. We had been hiking for 5.9 km We headed to our left to get to the towers. This last little jaunt was steep! But it didn’t last long.

Towers and Views

The first thing we saw was the observation tower, and we decided to climb it first. The tower is 18 metres tall. It was super well built, and the view from the top was incredible! Plus, it was right next to the fire tower so we got a really good, close view of that which was cool.

The fire tower!

After a few snacks (cheerios and cupcakes, yum!), we headed over to climb the fire tower. We needed to climb a ladder to get up to the stairs in the tower. I opted to stay closer to the ground with the baby while my husband went to go check it out. The fire tower was also in good shape, and my husband says it looked like they had been working hard to restore it, because it had brand new boards and began to feel sturdier the higher up you go. He said the first few flights of stairs still felt a bit shaky, so those will probably be restored soon.

The views from both of these structures are 360°, and you get to see beautiful rolling hills (tiny mountains?) and a dozen lakes scattered among them.

What a stunning view.

Please Don’t Fall Asleep!

The baby was starting to look a little sleepy, so we decided we’d try to get back to the car. Fingers crossed so she could fall asleep there instead of on my back. We headed towards the parking lot and then down the road for just a bit before we noticed a Trail 1 sign on our left, leading us back into the forest.

Trail 1 was downhill the entire way, and some parts were a bit sharp, so hiking UP this trail could make for a good workout!

There were lots of trail markers along Trail 1 as well, and we saw two maps posted on our way down. We traversed a few short, quick switchbacks and then descended a set of concrete stairs. Soon after, we were back at the original trail split!

Stairs on the trail making things easy.

We arrived back at the parking lot having hiked 7.6 km We were able to cover that distance in 2 hours and 55 minutes. But, we spent a lot of time hanging out at the towers, so this hike could go even more quickly if you wanted it to.

Trail Thoughts

We really enjoyed the hike at Mont Morissette Regional Park. For such great views, the hiking was really easy! I can only imagine that the trails would be even more beautiful in winter. I think we’ll have to head back and check out Trail 3!

On our way back to Ottawa, we stopped off in Wakefield for a late lunch. We’d never been (can you believe it?), and loved all the little restaurants and cafes with a view of the Gatineau River. Despite the chilly temperature, it was really making us want to get out and paddle.  Guess we’ll have to head back to Wakefield sometime in the future too!

If you’re up for a road trip, or looking for an easy day in the woods with some stunning views, a trip to Outaouais and Mont Morissette Regional Park is a must.

What an awesome day in Outaouais!

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

Our GPS tracked route of Trails #1 and #2 at Mont Morissette Regional Park.

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.

Huh. Turns out we WERE going up. The trail honestly didn’t feel as steep as this looks!

Gear We Brought

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