Sentier de l'Orignac, Pas de Géants, Mont à Liguori, Zec Lac-au-Sable: five confidential Charlevoix hikes for when the Acropole parking lot is full.
Every fall the same traffic jam reassembles: the Acropole des Draveurs parking lot fills by nine, and the queue at the summit feels more like a grocery checkout than a wilderness experience. It is the paradox of best-of lists — we contributed to the phenomenon ourselves with our guide to the essential hikes. So here is the antidote: five trails visitors have never heard of, where the viewpoints rival the celebrities and you meet more grey jays than hikers. Keep it quiet.
Sentier de l'Orignac: the hidden ridgeline of the backcountry
North of Saint-Urbain, the Sentier de l'Orignac traces its ridgeline between the Traversée de Charlevoix and Mont Grand-Fonds — territory that only Nordic skiers frequent in winter. The western section starts at the junction with the Traversée and runs east to Lac McLeod, where the central section takes over through a jack pine plantation before climbing to its first lookouts. The kilometre-4 viewpoint is the showpiece: Mont Grand-Fonds, the Rivière Noire valley and the Palissades line up in a single panorama, without a rooftop or a power line in sight.
This is a long, solitary hike with a boreal soul, best kept for self-sufficient walkers: access is by backcountry roads and services are nonexistent. In exchange, autumn here is raw and beautiful — and the odds of meeting the animal the trail is named after (orignac is an old word for moose) are not zero.
Pas de Géants: the balcony of the Bas-Saguenay
In Saint-Siméon, the Zec Buteux–Bas-Saguenay maintains a 3.4-kilometre loop that packs more variety than trails three times its length. The intermediate-level circuit crosses a mature maple forest, skirts rockslides and glacier-carved palisades, then opens onto the famous Pas de Géants — "giant's steps" — a staircase of quartz outcrops where alpine vegetation clings and the view plunges into the Lac Port-aux-Quilles valley. The effort-to-reward ratio is unbeatable, and the zec's welcome station at 101 chemin des Lacs marks the trailhead — the zec operates seasonally, so check the hours before driving out.
Mont à Liguori and l'Ancestrale: the wild storey of Le Massif
In Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, everyone knows Le Massif; almost nobody knows the community trails that climb right beside it. L'Ancestrale leaves from the edge of the village and rises through a maple grove before getting serious: footbridges, spans and staircases bolted to the rock face punctuate the climb, which also serves as the gateway to the Gabrielle-Roy-Ouest trail and as the exit for long-distance walkers coming off the Sentier des Caps. From there, the ascent of Mont à Liguori starts at the Domaine à Liguori, run by a solidarity cooperative: the first kilometre crosses the domain's campsites, meets the Petite rivière Saint-François, then attacks the climb proper. At the top, the St. Lawrence spreads wide — and there is no gondola to bring anyone else up, which guarantees the silence.
Sentier des Pointes: pastoral Saint-Urbain
Continuing on from the Les Florent trails, the Sentier des Pointes begins where few hikes dare to: in the fields. The first kilometre rolls between crops with the village of Saint-Urbain, its church steeple and the mountains as a backdrop — scenery straight out of an old canvas. The trail then meets the ruisseau de l'Église, reaches a lookout over a waterfall and a rocky outcrop, and sinks into the boreal forest on a series of footbridges. It is the perfect half-day outing, accessible and surprisingly varied — pair it with a visit to nearby Grands-Jardins National Park if your legs ask for more.
Zec Lac-au-Sable: three trails, one waterfall, zero crowds
North of Clermont, the Zec Lac-au-Sable lines up three trails graded like a menu: La Gamelle, an easy 800 metres to a waterfall, to warm up; the Menaud trail, 4 linear kilometres with steep pitches, a 25-metre cascade and a lookout perched at 900 metres of elevation; and the Mont Élie trail, 8 linear kilometres of intermediate-to-difficult walking for a full day out. It is the same territory the ATV riders roam — our article on quad excursions in Charlevoix describes this lake-strewn interior — but on foot, all you hear is falling water.
The quiet-trail user's manual
Three reflexes for these confidential paths. First, check access: zecs run seasonally and some welcome stations close in fall, while the community trails of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François and Saint-Urbain stay open year-round. Second, be fully self-sufficient — water, map, warm layers: nobody patrols these ridges, and cell coverage is theoretical. Third, aim for the last weeks of September to combine solitude with the fall colours: while the tour buses converge on the Hautes-Gorges, these five trails belong to those in the know — and now, quietly, to you as well.
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