Mount Royal: Olmsted's Road to the Cross, the Lake and the Lookout

The maples on the mountain peak in colour from late September into mid-October, and the lookout at golden hour is the best free view in the city. In summer, start on a Sunday afternoon so you set off to the sound of the tam-tams drumming at the Cartier Monument. Weekday mornings are the quietest.

Begin at the Cartier Monument on Avenue du Parc, easily reached on foot from Mont-Royal or Place-des-Arts metro. Ending on the south side puts you at Rue Peel and Avenue des Pins, a downhill walk from Peel metro and the downtown shops. Bus 11 crosses the mountain if anyone in the group wants to ride up and meet you at the top.

There is no entrance fee, no permit and no booking. The only thing you pay for is parking if you drive, and the lots near the Chalet and Beaver Lake fill up on sunny weekends. Transit is the easier option.

The Chalet, Smith House and the Beaver Lake pavilion are the only places on the mountain with washrooms, water and something to eat. Carry a bottle and a snack anyway; the Olmsted road is long and has little between those points. Better still, pack a picnic for the lawns by Beaver Lake.

Stay in the Plateau to walk to the Cartier Monument from your door, with cafés and bagel shops on the way. Downtown hotels around Rue Peel and Rue Sherbrooke put you at the bottom of the staircases, so you can reverse the route and climb from the south instead.

Little legs may struggle with the full Olmsted climb. Take bus 11 to Beaver Lake, let the kids loose on the lawns by the water, walk the level path to the Chalet lookout, and come down the stairs. It is a third of the distance and keeps all the highlights.

The Chalet was built in 1932 as a Depression-era make-work project, and its big hall is worth a look before you go out to the belvedere. The lookout itself is named for Kondiaronk, the Wendat (Huron) chief who helped negotiate the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701, a treaty signed a few kilometres below where you are standing.

The Olmsted road is fine gravel and needs nothing special from May to October, but the wooden staircases on the south face are steep and slick after rain. From December to March, slip-on ice cleats turn the mountain from treacherous into delightful.

The park is well used and generally safe, but the forest paths are unlit. If you stay for sunset at the lookout, come down by the staircases toward Rue Peel, which are the most direct and busiest way back into the city, and carry a phone light.