Mont-Royal: the mountain and Olmsted's great park
The climb to the Kondiaronk lookout, the cross, and Lac aux Castors in the woods. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Avenue du Parc & the Sir George-Étienne Cartier monument
The eastern gateway, where the Tam-Tams drummers gather on summer Sundays around the angel-topped monument. Start here and pick up the path up the slope; the city stays at your back the whole climb.

2. Chemin Olmsted
The original carriage road Frederick Law Olmsted laid out to wind gently up the mountain, never steep, always shaded. Take it over the staircases if your knees prefer the long way; the grade is the whole point of his design.

3. Chalet du Mont-Royal & the Kondiaronk lookout
The 1932 stone chalet and the great belvedere in front of it, where downtown's towers and the river line up below. This is the view on every postcard, and it earns it. Step inside for the painted murals and a warm-up in winter.

4. The cross (la croix du Mont-Royal)
The thirty-metre steel cross on the eastern summit, lit white at night and visible across the city. A marker stands where Maisonneuve is said to have planted a wooden cross in 1643. Less a view than a quiet clearing in the trees.

5. Lac aux Castors (Beaver Lake)
The shallow ornamental lake on the western meadows — pedal boats in summer, a skating loop in winter. The modernist pavilion sits on its bank. Walk the full rim; this is the open, social heart of the mountain after the woods.

6. Mount Royal Cemetery woods
Drop north off the summit into the wooded paths above the cemetery, where the migrating warblers come through in spring and the maples turn first in autumn. Loop back east toward the monument and the metro at the foot of the slope.

Mont-Royal: the mountain and Olmsted's great park