February 2022
Visiting Montgomery Falls – Quebec City, Canada
Montgomery Falls is located just twenty minutes from the city center of Quebec City so I knew this was a great addition to our day trip. What is awesome is this is an all year round attraction. During the warmer weather, the falls gush flowing into the St Lawrence River. During the winter time, everything freezes over and makes for a unique experience on top of the water. The falls themselves are 83 meters high and are actually made up of three separate waterfalls – the largest and most predominant sitting to the right side of photos.
Activities at the falls are quite adventurous. There is a cable car that transports visitors between the bottom and the top of the falls. In the summer time there is a zip line and via ferrata available while in the winter time, ice climbing is available. It is easy to spend a large option of your day here so make sure to know what you are looking to do to know how to allocate time for your visit.
Since it was closest to the city, we saved it for our last stop. For those without a car, there is a bus that travels to Montgomery Falls or is not a bad ride via ride share. We arrived after 1PM and paid the entrance and parking fee. After passing through the visitor center, we walked outside to a viewing platform to get a wide view of the falls. It was hard to imagine what this looks like during the summer time and that this entire portion in front of the falls was all water.
We walked around the assumed path (covered in snow!) to the base of the falls. We passed numerous signs warning of the risk which definitely made us nervous but we saw people much further close to the falls so we continued on.
It was much clearer to see the three falls since they were frozen. The first fall was being occupied by ice climbers which looked like they were having a lovely time! We watched the climbers for a while, wondering if we should have added this to our day but it was jam packed enough I do not think we would have had time. A unique experience to participate in!
We made it to the base of the waterfall and it was intense. The mound of snow at the base of the waterfall was enormous as the mist from the falls creates a constant snowfall.
A staircase with a viewing platform on the opposite side was completely covered in snow. It was hard to tell if we were standing on the water or not but looking at pictures of the falls in summertime, it was clear we were walking over water. I guess the signs were there for a reason but then we saw a snowmobile glide over the entire lake so we must have been ok.
We walked back to the visitor center and purchased a ticket for the cable car. I was originally hoping we would circumvent the fee by walking up the stairs but clearly that was not an option since you could barely see the stairs under all the snow.
At the top of the cable car, we walked towards the bridge to admire the view from above. We walked down to the first viewing platform and got a great view of the St Lawrence River. We were also able to visualize where the water was going and just how massive the snow mound in front of the falls really was.
The views from the bridge were expansive. We tried visualizing what this must look like in the summertime and how much water we were really looking at. There is something but peaceful and mysterious with everything so still in the distance.
We made our way back down the cable car and back to the car. I am so happy we made it out here to see Montgomery Falls frozen in the wintertime. If you have time during your trip to Quebec City, I would highly recommend coming out to Montgomery Falls and even looking into one of the adventurous activities! A visit here also pairs nicely with a trip across the St Lawrence River to Ile d’Orleans, grab lunch at Cassis Monna, and go wine tasting – the options are endless to creating your perfect day to Montgomery Falls.
