The Luskville Falls Trail- A 4.6 km Hike in Gatineau Park

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I was going to start this post by talking about how the Luskville Falls Trail in Gatineau Park is one of my absolute favorites, and how we hike it more often than any other trail. But then, I hiked it this weekend and thought to myself the whole way up “I don’t remember it being this rocky,” and “I don’t remember it being this hard” as I huffed and puffed my way towards the fire tower.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s an amazing trail, and it’s certainly an amazing workout. But I can hardly claim that we hike it SO often since it turns out I clearly don’t hike it enough to remember it well.

Dogs aren’t allowed on this trail, so I left mine at home. It’s also listed as a three season trail, so I’ve never hiked it in the winter (although I think it would be really awesome then too). Normally, the three season trails in Gatineau Park are open mid-April. I think this year’s big ice storm may have pushed that date back, but I didn’t end up going until Mother’s Day anyway.

Getting There

Luskville Falls is on the south side of Gatineau Park. It’s about a forty minute drive from Ottawa, but it’s a nice drive. I enjoyed looking out over the Ottawa River for part of the drive, and loved catching views of the Eardley Escarpment as I got closer to the trailhead.

You can use these coordinates to get there: 45.532755, -75.993848. I turned right at the Town Hall that’s by the side of the road. At this point, the road turned to gravel but it was still wide and fairly smooth. There’s a Gatineau Park sign that announces when you’ve reached the parking lot for the Luskville Falls trail.

The parking lot is huge, and was already starting to fill up when I got there around 9:30 a.m. This lot can easily fit a hundred cars. Even still, by the time I was done my hike a few hours later, cars were overflowing onto the gravel road.

At the parking lot, there is a big, beautiful green space with picnic tables and charcoal grills, as well as garbage cans for anything you need to get rid of. There are outhouses nearby.

The Trailhead

Right beside the trailhead, there’s a huge map of Gatineau Park. There’s also a small map of the route at Luskville Falls right on the trailhead sign. The trailhead is easy to find because of this. Plus, the route starts out with a set of stairs leading down into a little valley, so it’s really easy to know that you’re in the right place.

There’s also a short path that enters into the woods to the left of the stairs, and joins the trail. To me, that path is a perfect example of how having a bunch of people in a space who are not following Leave No Trace principles can impact the environment. So many people have taken this shortcut that instead of trees or other plants growing there and making homes for little critters, it’s just a footpath.

The Route

Starting out, I headed down the steps, and across a little bridge before heading UP a second set of stairs. The trail was fairly wide and smooth at first. As I approached the first waterfall though, it was already beginning to get rocky.

The first waterfall on the trail was only about 300 metres in from the trailhead. The day that I was there, it wasn’t flowing as strongly as I’ve sometimes seen it, but it’s always cool to look at regardless.

 

The trail continued uphill after the waterfall, and I followed it, thinking I had made a bad choice in footwear. For some reason, I wore running shoes instead of my normal hiking boots. I had felt like I wanted something a little lighter on my feet for the day, and (not remembering how rocky this trail was) thought that running shoes would be a good fit. I also figured the trail would be fairly dry, so that factored into my (poor) decision making. My hiking boots would have come in handy for the extra ankle support, but I chose to carry on anyway. I was just extra careful about where I put my feet.

This section of the trail was very cool, with a huge rock face to my right as I continued up.

My efforts were further rewarded by the Lusk Lookout, which I came upon after hiking only 450 metres or so. There weren’t any signs that alerted me to the lookout. Still, it felt fairly obvious when I stumbled across it because it’s a wide open rock face to the left of the trail. There was also a sign over at the lookout that compelled me to stop off and check it out.

Getting Turned Around

About 500 metres past the lookout, the trail winds to the left. There’s a short fence built here, so that’s how you’ll know to turn left. I, on the other hand, followed a footpath that went to the right, thinking that this might be where the trail split. Don’t do what I did! This was yet another example of how an area can be impacted by people going off the original path, and unfortunately I contributed to it.

I looped back around and went down the rock face to rejoin the trail. This section of the trail follows along a huge rock face, with great views out over the valley. The trail markers so far hadn’t been great, but on the rock face there were small white arrows painted to help show the way.

After hiking 700 metres, there was another waterfall to my left. This one was long, and skinnier than the first, but still lovely to look at. Just past this was the REAL split in the trail. There was a sign at this point, indicating the distance to the fire tower.

I chose to cross over the stream in order to complete the looped section in a clockwise direction. The stream wasn’t too high. I had no problems walking across the rocks to the other side without getting my feet wet. I’m not sure that it would be this easy earlier in the season. There was a trail marker on the other side of the stream that showed me where to re-enter the forest.

Uphill, Both Ways

For some reason, this next section of the trail was feeling difficult for me. The trend of going uphill continued. It really didn’t level out until I had been hiking for 1.8 kilometres in total.

The trail here was a mixture of rocky sections that changed to stretches of open rock face and back again. The trail markers were still few and far between. I had to keep an eye out to make sure I was staying on the trail, because when the trail runs over rock it’s not quite as apparent where it goes as it is when it’s cut through grass or dirt.

After hiking for 1.2 kilometres, I came across what I would describe as a “fence funnel.” The fence had been built for no apparent reason other than to guide me in a particular direction. Across from the fence, the trail carried on to my right, but I decided to go through the funnel and see what it was all about. Beyond the fence was a huge space made up of that open rock face I had come to expect from this area. There were some views here, although they weren’t as great as from the other lookouts. Regardless, it was worth a look.

After a quick tour of the area, I hopped back on the trail and continued on towards the fire tower. About 300 metres past the fence, the trail began to feel more “foresty.” Before, the spaces had been a bit more open, but now, there were more trees, closer to the trail. The scent of pine began to fill the air (I think! Really, it just smelled like a campground to me).  Next, I came to a sign on the trail showing me the direction to the fire tower.

To the Fire Tower

The rest of the route to the fire tower was joyously level! I arrived at the tower after hiking for 2.2 kilometres in total. At this spot, the Luskville Falls Trail meets Trail 1, which we had biked last summer. It was nice to reminisce about that trail while I snapped a few quick pictures of the fire tower.

Heading back the way I had come, I turned to my right when I arrived back at the sign pointing to the fire tower, in order to complete the loop.

I was happy to be heading downhill. I reached another easy stream crossing 300 metres past the split, and crossed over with no problems. The trail followed the stream downhill for a bit. It was lovely to be in the woods and to listen to the sound of the water moving along.

After a while, the trail veered away from the stream, and brought me to the second official lookout of the day. I arrived at the Pontiac Lookout after hiking for a total of 3.6 kilometres. The Pontiac lookout is comprised of a GIANT rock face, so I caught some great views while I was hiking, and didn’t really stop.

Just beyond the Pontiac Lookout, things got so rocky and steep that there was actually a little ladder installed. I made my way down it carefully, and followed the trail as it rejoined the stream soon after.

Getting Back

I reached the original split in the trail after hiking for a total of 4 kilometres. I followed the familiar trail down, and actually slipped on a few of the rocks despite them being totally dry. There were a few other people around me that I noticed almost falling too. I had forgotten my hiking poles, and would have LOVED to have them on this downhill section.

In total, the Luskville Falls trail clocked in at 4.6 kilometres. I was hiking for two hours and twenty minutes to finish the whole route. But remember, I was going pretty slow.

I loved seeing all the families out for Mother’s day. Some of these young kids were zooming past me.  And given how much there is to see in such a short distance (a waterfall AND a lookout within 500 metres of the trailhead?!), I can confidently say this is a great trail for families. I actually overheard two little kids on the Pontiac Lookout saying to their Dad, “this is the best hiking trip ever!”

So take it from them, and make sure to check out the Luskville Falls Trail.

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

• Running Shoes
• Hiking Capris
• Base Layer
• Fleece Sweater
• Buff Merino Wool Headband
• Small Backpack
• Nalgene 32-Ounce Bottle
• Cell Phone
• Olympus TG-4 Waterproof Digital Camera
• Sunscreen
• Bug Spray
• Sunglasses

Gear I Forgot

• Hiking Boots
• Hiking Poles