Gatineau Park: A beginner’s guide

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Gatineau Park is one of Ottawa’s unique claims to fame—even though it’s actually across the Ottawa River in the Outaouais region of Quebec. I mean, how many national capitals have a wilderness preserve larger than the entire nation of Malta on their doorstep?

Outdoorsy locals know Gatineau Park like the backs of their well-tanned hands, but this post isn’t for them. This post is for the newbie eager to discover the park for the first time. So grab your hat, bike, bathing suit, hiking boots and sunscreen, and follow me.

Gatineau Park basics

This 361-square-kilometre (139 square mile) expanse of forests and lakes sweeps northwest in a wide wedge from downtown Gatineau to Lac-des-Loups, a 45-minute drive away. Truly, I don’t think most people realize just how freaking huge the park is. The Gatineau Park Visitor Centre in Chelsea (33 Scott) is a great place to start your explorations, as you can buy park passes, get maps, rent equipment such as snowshoes, sign up for guided hikes and snowshoeing outings, and learn about the park’s ecology through detailed displays. The centre also has washrooms, picnic tables and free parking, and offers easy access to several short trails.

Gatineau Park’s roots: The Mackenzie King Estate

Late prime minister and all-round intriguing guy Mackenzie King was one of the key players in the park’s history. He bought his first small property just outside Chelsea in 1903 and eventually amassed a 230-hectare (568 acre) estate, which he donated to the country in 1950. The federal government added that parcel to the other properties it had bought in the area in order to create the park.

Today, the Mackenzie King Estate is a genteel little corner of Gatineau Park with a tea room, manicured gardens and King’s collection of picturesque “ruins”—bits of demolished buildings he shipped up here and re-assembled in artful ways. They include a fireplace remnant saved from Ottawa’s Parliament Buildings after the 1916 fire, pillars from an old bank and a bay window from a middle-class home. There are also some stones from Britain’s House of Commons that, astonishingly, King arranged to have shipped across the Atlantic in the middle of the Second World War, after a German bombing raid had seriously damaged the building. Today, the ruins are a marvellous place for photography and special events.

Gatineau Park trails, beaches and lookouts near Chelsea

If you’d like to see a more authentic ruin, head to the park’s P11 parking lot just outside Chelsea, where you’ll find the trailhead for Trail 36 (note that many parking lots in the park charge fees at certain times of year).

A short hike—only 3.25 kilometres (two miles) out and back, with just enough hills and tree roots to make it interesting—will bring you to the Carbide Willson Ruins, an abandoned industrial complex beside a waterfall. Willson, a noted inventor, built this fertilizer plant near his home on Meech Lake in 1911. At the time, it included a dam, a generating station and an acid condensation tower. When he died four years later, the complex was abandoned. The tower later burned down and the other two structures are being slowly consumed by the forest. It’s weirdly beautiful.

If swimming is more your style, you’ll be pleased to learn that P11 is also the parking lot for O’Brien’s Beach. That’s one of two beaches on Meech Lake; the other is Blanchet Beach, accessible from parking lot P13. Both beaches are open from late June to early September and have change rooms, outhouses and picnic tables. If you’re after a sandy shore, head to O’Brien’s. If you’d like to pair your beach day with a challenging hike, pick Blanchet instead, as it’s also the trailhead for the Wolf Trail (aka Trail 62), a challenging 8.3-kilometre (5.2 mile) loop with a 218-metre (715 foot) change in elevation as you climb the Eardley Escarpment.

To enjoy a gorgeous vista of the Ottawa Valley from the escarpment without the hike, head to the Champlain Lookout. It’s 11 kilometres from the visitor centre in Chelsea. (Note that the Champlain Lookout is closed for at least part of 2021 while the NCC rebuilds a retaining wall—but you can also get a great perspective on the landscape at the Étienne Brûlé Lookout, which is even closer to Chelsea.) And if you’d rather savour a nice view from the top of a ski hill, head to Camp Fortune (300 Dunlop), just outside Chelsea village.

Pink Lake: Scientifically fascinating

Gatineau Park’s Pink Lake—partway between downtown Gatineau and Chelsea—is just amazingly cool.

First, in late summer it’s green, not pink. (Pink was the surname of a family that settled there in 1826.) It’s green because it’s full of algae—which, while beautiful, aren’t healthy for the lake or its fish.

And second, it’s a meromictic lake, meaning that its top and bottom layers don’t mix because the lake is small, sheltered and deep. At its deepest point, in fact, there’s no oxygen at all. A prehistoric bacterium lives down there, happily “breathing” sulphur instead.

Because the lake is quirky and delicate, the National Capital Commission (NCC) forbids people to swim in it and has built an accessible lookout so visitors can admire it without causing damaging erosion. There’s also a 2.3-kilometre (1.4 mile) loop trail, with several sets of stairs. The main parking lot is off the Gatineau Parkway.

Honestly, this is just the beginning of the things you can see and do in Gatineau Park. You can go paddling, mountain biking, back-country camping and more. However, since this is a beginner’s guide, I’m going to cut right to dessert now.

Back in Old Chelsea: Ice cream and pizza!

Looking for a reward after all that healthy exercise? Just down the road from the Gatineau Park Visitor Centre is the seasonal La Cigale (14 Scott). It’s known for cakes, pies and doughnuts but especially for ice cream, which you can get in all sorts of flavours and in traditional, vegan and gluten-free varieties. There’s sorbet and house-made waffle cones, too.

Perhaps you’re looking for a meal rather than just heading straight to dessert. I can highly recommend the pizzas at Roberto Pizza Romana (241 Old Chelsea). Roberto honed his chops as a chef in Italy before settling down in Quebec, and the pizzas here are loaded with so many fresh ingredients, in such interesting combinations (potato, truffle and pecorino, anyone?) that I dare you to choose just one.

Getting to Gatineau Park

Chelsea, Quebec, is the ideal place to start your Gatineau Park visit. It’s just 17 kilometres from Parliament Hill. To drive there from downtown Ottawa, take King Edward Avenue or Sussex Drive to the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge, then follow Highway 5 north. Take exit 12 and turn left onto chemin Old Chelsea. To get to the visitor centre, drive through the village, then turn right onto Scott Road (the route is well marked).

No car? No problem. Take an STO (Gatineau) bus from either downtown Ottawa or Gatineau to Les Galeries de Hull. There, board a Transcollines bus for a 10- to 30-minute trip to Chelsea (trip time depends on whether you catch an express bus or a local).

At certain times of year, the NCC runs shuttle services to the park as well.

You can cycle to Chelsea largely along off-road paths through Gatineau Park. One of the most popular routes is via the Gatineau Parkway path, accessible from boulevard Alexandre-Taché in Gatineau. Just be forewarned: You’ll be going uphill for most of the trip.

Please note: Currently, the Champlain, Gatineau and Fortune Lake parkways are closed to motor vehicles for much of the week, but open to cyclists, runners and other people enjoying some outdoor exercise. Here’s the schedule of openings and closings.

For detailed information on Gatineau Park, visit the National Capital Commission’s website. For more information on visiting Chelsea, see the village’s website or Tourisme Outaouais.

Accommodations in Chelsea, Quebec

Want to make a weekend of it? Chelsea is home to lots of bed and breakfasts, and short-term rental accommodations. Check out the map below. (Disclosure: If you make a reservation using the map, I’ll receive a small commission—and you’ll have the satisfaction of helping to support this site. Thanks!)

Looking for more tips for things to see and do in Eastern Ontario, the Outaouais and beyond? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter and/or buy my guidebook, Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100-km Getaway Guide, from which this post is adapted.

As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.