Snowshoeing hike in Monts-Valin National Park

I’m getting back to writing after having stopped for a while, I have to admit, because I’m also working on other projects on the blog. So we came back to Canada this February 2026 to discover another region of Quebec, in partnership with Manawa, an online activities site where we book all our excursions, walks, boat trips, etc. We’ve really gotten into the habit of using it for several years and, if you’d like to book activities before going on vacation, it’s truly a reliable site. For this trip, we came to discover Quebec City for a few days and then the Saguenay region, about three hours north of Quebec City.

Between us, it’s a real pleasure to be able to snowshoe again in this region. We did some last year, but I’ll admit I didn’t write about the experience in the Laurentians. On the other hand, you can go read our experience stories that I wrote about the snow tubing we tried—such a treat. We also did a helicopter ride, snowmobiling and, of course, to the kids’ greatest delight, a dog sledding excursion.

So, in this short article, I’m sharing the amazing snowshoe hike we were able to do in the Monts-Valin. If you look into things to do in Quebec, and especially in the area, the Valley of the Ghosts in Monts-Valin National Park often comes up, particularly as a very well-known snowshoe outing. Unfortunately, it’s something that remains a bit complicated with kids, especially Téo, who is only five. So we decided not to try the Valley of the Ghosts, but we figured it was still a great idea to rent snowshoes for the day to go discover the park, which is truly beautiful.

One interesting thing to note before I talk about the hike itself is that we decided, for these 15 days in Quebec, to try HomeExchange, which is a very well-known system in the travel world and really a way to travel more simply, more affordably, and to fully enjoy it thanks to a home swap or a points exchange.

So, thanks to a Quebec family, we managed to find a lovely little house around Labrecque, about an hour northwest of Saguenay, lost in the middle of the forest on the edge of a small lake. Honestly, it’s super nice and the setting is truly magical for spending 15 days here. If you’re interested in understanding how it works, I’ll leave you our referral link, which will let you get 250 points when you sign up, which basically can already mean, depending on the places, two free nights. It’s always a plus. Anyway, that wasn’t the topic of the article. The goal today is to tell you about the snowshoe hike on site.

I’ll admit we checked the weather and it was definitely supposed to be cold. That morning, when we get up to go snowshoeing, it’s -25°C. Clearly, for us who live in Guadeloupe, that stings badly. I’ve never been so cold since we’ve been coming to Canada. Last year, we “only” had -16°C, if I can put it that way. This time, seeing -25°C at 7 a.m., you tell yourself it’s still going to be tough, even if you know the temperature can then rise fairly quickly and that, often, when it’s that cold, the weather is also very nice. So we know the sun will be with us for the day. So we’re still super motivated!

So we leave from our house, located about a good hour and a half from Monts-Valin National Park. We had gotten an eSIM card (at the airport) to get around during our outings, because it’s always important to have internet, especially to locate yourself, share our experiences in stories when we’re on the road, book a restaurant, etc.

I’ll admit that, when we leave the house, what makes me smile quite a bit is that sometimes, between Waze and Google Maps, there can be some big differences. And here, Google Maps takes us on small mountain roads, because in reality the Monts-Valin are located really west of where we’re staying for these two weeks. So it has us take very small country roads. We tell ourselves it’s fine, we’re on time, and we decide to go for it on these little roads like that.

It’s actually really interesting to go that way, because we realize there are people who live in super isolated spots. We drive through really beautiful landscapes all along the road. There are houses scattered here and there, and every now and then we pass a few small villages, kind of little hamlets with 10 to 15 houses. You still tell yourself that life here can’t be that easy in winter. In summer, I can easily imagine it must be super pleasant to live here, but in winter, it must be a whole different story…

Anyway, in any case, we drive about an hour and a half on these small roads that bring us to the famous Monts-Valin National Park. When we arrive, we pass the famous park entrance sign, then we start to slowly head into the forest, with a landscape that becomes a bit more mountainous, and it’s really beautiful. The setting is really nice, nicely snow-covered. Of course, there isn’t fresh snow like we had, for example, last year in the Laurentians, because you can clearly see the fir trees aren’t covered with a thick layer of snow. You can tell the snow fell some time ago, but given how cold it’s been—between -15 and -20°C lately—it’s obvious the snow holds without any issue. Honestly, the area is gorgeous.

So we arrive at the parking lot of the Discovery and Services Center of Monts-Valin National Park. We park calmly. We’re 30 minutes early compared to what was more or less planned, but anyway we rented snowshoes for the day, so no stress on that front.

We go into the center to pick up our gear. The welcome is honestly top-notch: the two people there give us quite a few tips, and we were able to chat in particular about things to do in the region, but also places to eat and that kind of thing. It’s really appreciated. We fill out a few forms, as we’re used to, to provide the necessary information for the rental, including—what’s pretty funny—the license plate number, to make sure we’re back by 4 p.m. That’s the time to return the snowshoes in the late afternoon, and it mainly allows them to see if someone, for example, got lost or if there’s any kind of issue. If the car is still there, it can alert them. Anyway, the whole team really takes care of us and the kids: they’re truly adorable.

They choose for us the four pairs of snowshoes we’re going to use and also tell us that the footwear we have is a bit big for snowshoe rentals. But in our case, that’s all we had, and it’ll do. By the way, if you’re interested, we wrote a full article about renting winter clothing in Quebec with Émilie, from Tuque et Bicycle Experience, with whom we partnered, and honestly we’re more than happy with the result. It’s been two years now that we’ve gone through them to rent our winter clothes, and it really allows us not to have to buy clothing. So that’s really cool.

Anyway, here we are equipped with our four pairs of snowshoes. We head out around 10 a.m. from the center and we all gear up, the four of us, under a beautiful sun and a blue sky. We’re really happy to set off like that. I’ll admit it’s still pretty cold, -15°C at the start, but while walking, you don’t really feel it. The first meters on the trail we take are truly magical. As I said, the weather is gorgeous and nobody complains about the cold. Everyone rediscovers the feeling of walking with snowshoes, like we had the chance to do last year in the Laurentians. And honestly, it’s always a real pleasure.

You still have to face the facts: even if the snowshoe rental is for the day, we’re clearly not used to walking with snowshoes. At the same time, we live on a tropical island in Guadeloupe, so you can imagine. But we also know that with the kids, it’s going to be fairly complicated and that it’s often the reason we turn back. Anyway, as we told ourselves with Mélanie, the goal isn’t to do a race or 30 kilometers of snowshoeing today. The goal is for everyone to have fun, enjoy themselves with the sensation of walking in the woods, in a quiet, beautiful, sunny place, with snowshoes. So no stress: we move forward and we’ll see.

The woman at the front desk had given us good advice, knowing of course that we had a 5-year-old who wasn’t going to walk for miles. So we decide to take a trail that was recommended to us, with the idea of being able to turn back whenever we wanted, depending on how Téo was doing and his level of fatigue. The feeling is still honestly excellent, and it’s typically the kind of activity where you tell yourself that, if we lived here, it would clearly be part of the activities we’d do regularly, rather than classic hiking that you can’t really do in winter anyway with the snow. Snowshoeing really lets you discover places in a relaxed, calm, affordable, and eco-friendly way at the same time. In the end, it only has advantages.

So we start walking on this fully snow-covered trail. Honestly, the scenery is magical for us. Even if it maybe didn’t snow the day before, the fir trees are still nice and white, and the atmosphere is really beautiful. Everyone is loving it, and that’s what matters. We walk calmly and reach, after about 30 minutes, a first junction. We decide to keep going. We’re in the forest, in very wooded areas, with quite a bit of snow. We follow the tracks of other snowshoers, but also those of cross-country skiers, even though we only run into two people during our whole outing. This wooded section is really pleasant, and we enjoy walking and savoring this family moment. That’s also why we came to Canada: to enjoy these moments, yes as part of our partnership with Manawa to try snowshoeing, but also to live these experiences, write content for the blog and for our readers. And clearly, we’re having a blast.

After about 1 hour 45 minutes, we leave the most wooded area and arrive at a zone that climbs slightly and runs along a frozen lake. What’s pretty funny is that we now recognize frozen lake areas quite well, because there are simply no trees. Often, when you’re driving, you don’t necessarily realize it’s a lake at first, since everything is icy and snow-covered. You lose your bearings a bit when you’re not used to it. Here, in any case, the view over the lake is very beautiful. Once again, the weather is gorgeous. Sure, it’s not warm, but we really can’t complain about the conditions with this sunshine.

The kids are enjoying the moment too, even though they spend their time bickering about who’s going to be first, who’s going the fastest. They’re in a phase where they compare themselves a lot, and it’s sometimes tiring. We have to play referee a bit to calm everyone down, because they chase each other, they push, it sometimes ends with a face in the powder, and it doesn’t always make everyone laugh. But overall, everyone is enjoying it. We even take a short break in the woods, where we savor a good tea we brought in a thermos, with cereal and a few small cookies. It’s always nice, and it’s also advice we were given: when you head into the forest like this for a hike, you have to remember to bring a few snacks, especially with kids.

After about 1 hour 30 minutes of walking, Téo starts to get fed up and complains. We tell ourselves that if we turn back now, it’ll still take about 1 hour 30 minutes to get back. That’s clearly something to factor in with kids: you can’t walk for three hours like it’s nothing, forgetting that you’ll then have to do the route again in reverse. So we decide to head back after about 1 hour 30 minutes of walking. The return goes pretty well, with no particular issues. The scenery is still just as beautiful, and it’s really pleasant. We get back around 1 p.m. to the Discovery and Services Center, where we’re welcomed again by the same people as in the morning. We take the opportunity to have a good hot chocolate and a coffee at the small cafeteria, which is really appreciated.

You should know that we’re in a center located right in the heart of a national park, so there is literally nothing to eat on site: no snack bar or restaurant in the park. On the other hand, we get very good advice from the two people at the front desk, who point us to a small local snack spot, Chez Caro, simple and inexpensive, on the Saguenay side, about a 20-minute drive away. Honestly, it’s simple, but it’s perfect for us.

In any case, it was a wonderful experience. If you come to discover Quebec in winter, to me it’s obvious: snowshoe hikes really are among the activities to put on your list. Even with kids, heading out for a few hours is already a great experience. I hope it will make you want to try the adventure.

A few practical words to help you plan your stay on site.

As usual, everything will of course depend on your starting point in the region and where you’re staying. On our side, we were staying out in the countryside near Alma, about a 1-hour drive away. To make it easier for you to get to the Discovery Center, you’ll find the exact point directly on Google Maps below.

If you’d like to explore Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean freely during your vacation, renting a car remains, in our opinion, the best choice. As with every trip, we used the DiscoverCars comparison site, which pits many rental companies against each other, and we got a very good rate; so remember to compare offers before booking.

I intentionally talked about sleeping nearby because of course, since this is a national park, you can’t sleep directly in the park. But there are some very nice places to stay not far away if you want to be close to the center and be able to enjoy snowshoeing, snowmobiling, etc. Here are three nice addresses to consider:

• Les Hébergements de l’Éternel : These unique accommodations in domes or mini-chalets set in the heart of nature offer fully equipped studios with mountain views and spa access, close to Monts-Valin Park and outdoor activities.
• Le Chalet de Claude : Here is a spacious, fully equipped family chalet located at the foot of the Monts-Valin. It offers an ideal natural setting for exploring the region’s parks, lakes, and outdoor activities, with a garden, terrace, and amenities for all seasons. You’ll especially appreciate the comfort, the owners’ thoughtful touches, and the ideal location for hiking, skiing, or biking.
• Auberge Cap au Leste : This nature complex perched above the Saguenay Fjord in Sainte-Rose-du-Nord offers rooms and wooden chalets tucked away in the forest, with spectacular views, an on-site restaurant, and plenty of outdoor activities year-round. It’s an ideal place for a family immersion in nature.

Otherwise, you can look at the map below to find your accommodation based on the location you want.

We personally used HomeExchange for the first time, and the experience was wonderful. If you’d like to understand the concept and sign up, feel free to do so via our referral link to get 250 points when you sign up.

Finally, you should also know that Monts-Valin National Park is especially known for the famous Valley of the Ghosts, which you see a lot on social media. We knew it would be too complicated with the kids, but if you have the chance to do it and you feel up to walking for a day, it’s apparently really worth going to discover this place.

I hope this article gave you the motivation to go snowshoeing in the park.

See you soon,

Written by Sylvain PONS

I had the opportunity to explore the beauty of this country I love on several different occasions and in different places (Canadian Rockies, the Island of Newfoundland for 1 month, Yukon and Québec)!

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