Montmorency Falls and Canyon Sainte-Anne, Quebec

After leaving the city of Quebec, our next stage was Saguenay Marine Park, a whale sanctuary that I’ll talk about in next posts. In the route to this place there are two recommended visits: Montmorency Falls and Canyon Saint-Anne.

Montmorency Falls

Montmorency Falls Park is managed by Parcs Quebec and is located a few kilometres from Old Quebec in Beauport area. The entrance is free and the waterfall is 83 meters high, much higher than Niagara Falls, although less abundant.

You can make a walk by foot that takes you from a bridge that crosses the fall in its highest point, until some scenic viewpoints in front of it, at the same height. Later you can descend by and endless wooden stairway that leads you to the lower part of the fall, sprinkled by roundabouts and scenic viewpoints too, from where you can watch the fall. It’s exhausting just watching it.

There is a cableway (but you must pay to use it) that crosses the fall from one side to the other, a restaurant and areas for picnic and games. You can access the park from the upper or the lower side of the water fall. Even though the entrance is free, there’s no way to leave the car without paying.

Canyon Saint-Anne

Canyon Sainte-Anne is a private property near another 74 meter fall in Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré village. The visit is made up of a walk by foot along the canyon and around the waterfall, where three hanging bridges crosses (one of them is 55 m high over the cliff).

Besides there are activities like zip-wiring, cable bridge crossing over the fall and other adventure sports managed by a third enterprise. For the younger ones there is also a “cultural” path with contests and riddles about the spirits of the forest.

Note: although the website says these paths are “safe and easy to access for all the family”, the truth is that one of the shores is very sharp and full of stairways (like the access to the third bridge) so you should forget about bringing baby seats and people who can’t walk well. In this case you can visit only half of the circuit, because the other shore is plane but it has steep slopes.