Calvaire d'Oka — Attraction in Oka

Located in Oka National Park , reached by hiking, or biking if you are very good at mountain bikes, it's a wonderful place to visit, it's on a peak overlooking the oka beach and surrounding waterways, it's fantastic view after one hour hiking from the Calvaire parking lot, short drive(1km) north of highway 344, just opposite the entrance for oka campground, from the same parking lot, you can also choose Trail Summit, which would take 1.5 - 2 hours to reach the Calvaire, this trail is leading to the Summit, which is 150 meters high 😀, there are 2 picnic tables there, the overview is ok, all oka trails are easy one, some people can ride mountain bikes on the both Summit and Calvaire trails. Near the last turn back to parking lot on the Summit trail, you can use the "service road" to "Chapelle ", leading you to the Calvaire, then back to the parking lot using Trail Calvaire. The two trails intertwined in the middle of hills. Fall season is best time to visit these oka trails, seeing the colors. There are other two trails nearby, after visiting the Calvaire, driving east on chemical des colines, which is parallel to hwy 344, you will see the parking lot, 20 minutes drive between the two parking lots, from this parking lot, you can hike the grand baie trail, 30 minutes leading to the water, there is a tower overlooking the bay, lots of geese, ducks on the water. There is supposed another trail right from the parking lot, but the park fails to mark it properly (or not marked), it is just down the path parallel to the chemical des colines, to the east, some years, the beautiful yellow maple leaves blanket the ground, depending the years, anyway just 20 minutes round trip trail. if lucky you could see deers,...

We went here on a Saturday in May. We arrived around 10 AM and it wasn’t too crowded (around 15 other people by the time we reached the summit).

The trail itself is easy, a few steep inclines here and there, but nothing difficult to climb. The trail can be completed within 1h20, back and forth. The summit is quite nice and offers a nice view of the region.

Here are some tips:

1. The trail is infested with mosquitoes (unsure if this changes depending on the time of the year). We did not come with mosquito repellent, but luckily, the ranger was very kind to let us use some of hers. There is a pharmacy less than 5 mns away if you need to grab one. You definitely need a repellent to get through. They swarm around you as soon as you get on the trail.

2. You can purchase your tickets in advance on the SEPAQ website...

This is another spectacular hike for the late fall season. This hike is in Oka National Park, less than an hour from Montreal, but in terms of being in the outdoors it seems like a long way away. The endpoint to this trail is a small Chapel with, as you can see, a spectacular view. You can almost imagine 19th century settlers making the pilgrimage up to the chapel. There are out buildings along the way as well with paintings resembling stations of the Cross. The monastery of Oka is not very far away where you can shop for the cheese for which it is famous. But there are other items also on sale such as charcuterie. Surprisingly, there is also an...