Montreal Mount Royal Self-Guided Audio Walk: Kondiaronk Lookout, the Cross and Beaver Lake

Your Experience

Montreal has a mountain in the middle of the city, and Frederick Law Olmsted designed its park so that nobody would reach the top in a rush. The views arrive one at a time, bend by bend. Climb from the bronze Cartier Monument to a hairpin on Olmsted's carriage road and learn why it zigzags. Look east over the Plateau from the Camillien-Houde lookout, stand beneath the riveted steel cross that schoolchildren raised money for, five cents at a time, and reach the Kondiaronk lookout with downtown spread below.

Hear why no downtown tower may rise above the summit, and how the Wendat chief Kondiaronk helped make the Great Peace of 1701. Then drift down past the 1964 sculpture clearing to Beaver Lake and its folded concrete pavilion.

Seven stops, about 3.4 km and 90 minutes with a steady climb, in English and at your own pace. Toilets at the chalet and at the lake.