New England to Quebec Scenic Foliage Weekend Getaway

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If you’re craving a stunning autumn adventure, a scenic foliage weekend getaway from New England to Quebec is the perfect escape. You’ll be immersed in vibrant fall colors, historic charm, and breathtaking landscapes that make this drive unforgettable. Whether it’s the crisp air or the picturesque views, this journey will leave you feeling refreshed and connected with nature’s beauty.

Every fall, I try to do a weekend getaway to do some leaf peeping. Typically, I go somewhere in New England. I was looking to take a trip to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont this year, specifically in the Newport area.

There weren’t a ton of spots to stay and the ones that were available were wicked expensive. So, I checked out some spots just over the border in Quebec, Canada. After seeing just how much cheaper it was to stay in Canada, it was a no-brainer as to where we would end up going.

I decided to plan a trip around Mont-Orford National Park in Quebec. This national park is just a short thirty minutes from the U.S. border, making it an easy road trip from Southeastern Connecticut. This was only my second time ever going to Canada, but I was super excited to go back!

The Road Trip

We left on a Friday morning to make the five hour, three hundred mile trip to our destination in southern Quebec. All things considered, it was a pretty short road trip without a lot of traffic. However, we did want to break up the drive, so we made some stops in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

Stop Number One: Dog Mountain in St. Johnsbury, VT

The first stop on our road trip was Dog Mountain, which was created by the artist Stephen Huneck. I didn’t really do much research prior to going, it was more of just something I saw that was near something else I knew I wanted to do on the way up.

This is a private mountaintop that welcomes people and their dogs. Dogs are allowed to be off-leash on the property and there are plenty of trails for them to explore as well as ponds for them to swim in.

I love dogs and I think it’s an amazing concept. However, I will say that while I love that this is a spot for dogs to be dogs off-leash, you should use caution while here. Unfortunately, irresponsible dog owners can (and do) bring their dogs that aren’t appropriately trained to be off-leash here.

I watched one dog run away from its owner and it had no zero recall. It ended up going up to dogs that were leashed and causing trouble. The owner who had the leashed dogs ended up getting dragged a bit by his own dogs that were getting bothered by the off-leash dog.

There’s more to this mountain than just being a place for dogs and their humans to hang out. There is a very special chapel on the property. The Dog Chapel was first opened in 2000. According to their website, it is “a symbol of peace, love, and remembrance.”

People come from all over to remember their dogs that have passed on. The walls are lined with photos of animals who have passed on. It was honestly such an emotional place to visit. Tears were shed.

After that, we explored the Stephen Huneck Gallery. The art was fun and it of course featured dogs and the occasional cat. There were prints as well as fun items like mugs to get the artwork on. We didn’t buy anything, but I did have my eye on a couple of items in the store.

After, we went into town and grabbed a bite to eat at the 98 Mill restaurant. The restaurant is located in a 150 year old riverside mill. It’s a great spot to grab a casual bite to eat. As someone who loves visiting historic buildings, I loved getting to dine in an old mill.

Stop Number Two: Haystack Mountain Hike in Orleans, VT

The last time I was in the Northeast Kingdom in the fall, I hiked Mount Pisgah, which overlooks Lake Willoughby. That area is beautiful, but it’s super well-known at this point and gets crowded. So, instead of dealing with the crowds, I decided to hike Haystack Mountain, which is just a couple miles east.

If you do the complete loop, it’s a 3 mile hike, with a portion of it being on an unpaved road. I initially wanted to just hike to the overlooks and then go back down the way we came. But, it was extremely steep with a lot of roots and I decided it was best to try and finish the loop for safety reasons.

There were three different overlooks: the West Overlook, the East Overlook, and then an un-named one off of the South Trail. The West Overlook offered views of ponds below and mountains in the distance. The view was even better than AllTrails made it out to be. However, it was a bit steep to get down to and it was rocky with a drop-off at the overlook, so absolutely use caution here.

The East Overlook wasn’t much of an overlook. It offered a view of a mountain that I think had a fire tower on top of it. The view was really just seen through some trees and it wasn’t as open as the West Overlook.

The un-named overlook off of the South Trail wasn’t quite as grand as the West Overlook, but it was beautiful in its own right. There was a view of a mountain and a body of water in front of it. This overlook was a little less scary than the West Overlook was since there were many flatter spots to sit and stand to enjoy the view.

After we finished the hike, we went to Lake Willoughby. It was late enough that most of the crowds were gone, which was nice. We stopped at the road-side Peter Gilman Waterfall before we headed to the Lake Willoughby South Beach.

Last Stop: Our Airbnb in Eastman, quebec

Once the sun had set, we started the final hour of our trip north into Quebec. We continued up I-91 North right to the border in Derby, Vermont. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait to long to cross the border. From the border, it was 30 minutes to our cute Airbnb in Eastman, Quebec!

Quebec: Day 1

Mont-Orford resort

For our first day in Quebec, we planned a day around Mont-Orford. We started the morning off by taking the gondola up to the summit of Mont-Orford. We were blown away by just how much foliage there was around us as we made our way up the mountain. The views were stunning.

At the top of the summit, it was chilly and EXTREMELY windy. Thankfully, we were dressed appropriately for the climate. Aside from the less than ideal weather on the summit, the views were great from the moment we stepped off the gondola.

There were multiple view points at the summit of the mountain. The first was right next to where you got off the gondola. There was another that was a very short walk from the gondola as well if you went right after stepping off of the gondola. If you went left, there were trails that would take you to some other viewpoints. There was a really nice boardwalk that led to some of my favorite viewpoints from the summit.

Mont-Orford National Park

Just up the road from Mont-Orford Resort is Mont-Orford National Park. There are various trails to explore here. There are hikes to some beautiful overlooks with water and mountain views as well as some easy trails that are flatter and a bit more child-friendly.

We entered through the entrance that was off of QC-141 on the south end of the park. We stopped at the Visitor Center that was located at the bottom of Étang aux Cerises, or in English, Cherry Pond. We explored some of the trail that went alongside the pond. We went to the Point de vue de la Colline des pins, aka the Hill of Pines viewpoint before we turned around.

However, you don’t need to hike to get great views of this pond. The views from right behind the Visitor Center are really quite lovely. If you follow the pond away from the road, cross the bridge, and then take a left, you can get some really nice views of Mont-Orford. No hike with elevation necessary.

Then, we drove further into the park to Stukely Lake. This section of the park has a beach as well as some more hiking trails. We took a leisurely walk along the beach and took in the mountain views. To get a different vantage point without a hike, we went up to the deck that was off of the Visitor Center in this section of the park. After a laid back visit, we decided to head out of the park.

Relaxing in Eastman

After the National Park, we headed back to Eastman, the cute little town that we were staying in. We grabbed a bite to eat at Bistro Pub McMurray. My boyfriend got a burger and I got the McMurray poutine, which was delicious. This spot was recommended to us by our Airbnb host as well as by the person at the Tourist Information Office of Memphremagog.

After we ate, we decided to explore the town. There were some really pretty buildings lining the streets. There was a small little park that was cutely named the Park of Passing Time. It had festive fall decorations, a gazebo, and the biggest free library I’ve ever seen.

Before we left the center of town, we stopped at Pâtisserie Dorville, or in English, Dorville Pastry. This was another spot that was recommended by our Airbnb host and it was also highly rated on Google. Not only was this shop super cute, but it also had delicious sweet treats. We both got the three chocolate mousse dessert and it was honestly SO GOOD.

Then, we decided to check out some of the small parks on the lakes in town. First, we checked out Marc Aurèle Park. When I saw this on the map, I knew I had to go since my last name is MarcAurele. It was a small park with some awesome mountain views.

Then we went to another small park that was walkable from the center of town. This park was called the Barrage du Lac-D’Argent, or in English, the Silver Lake Dam. There were picnic tables here as well as a swinging bench that had beautiful views of a train bridge. I probably took like 50 pictures of the train bridge alone while I was here.

Last, we went to the small park that was walkable from our Airbnb. This was the Parc de Petite-Rivière, which also featured some beautiful mountain views. Since it was nearing sunset, we sat back and relaxed in the Adirondack chairs and just enjoyed the peacefulness of the quiet lakeside park. Not a bad way to end the day.

Quebec: Day 2

Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac

Our first stop on day two was the Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, which is a monastery located on the west shore of Lake Memphremagog. Unfortunately, they don’t do guided tours past the end of August. So, we did a walkthrough of the Chapelle de la Réconciliation, or in English, the Chapel of Reconciliation.

While here, we also took the short walk to the site of the First Settlement Bolton, 1782. There wasn’t a lot to see here except a marker and an informational sign. This would be a good visit if you’re into history and stuff like that. I like history, but I typically like to be able to SEE it instead of just reading about it.

Magog

After the monastery, we decided to go into Magog. I really just wanted to walk along Lake Memphremagog. I’ve walked along the lake before from Newport, Vermont in the United States so I was really looking forward to experiencing it from the Quebec side.

There were two parks that I wanted to check out along the lake, Pointe-Merry Park and Magog Bay Park. Thankfully, the two parks are connected by a walking path so we were easily able to do both. We parked at Pointe-Merry and casually made our way to Magog Bay Park using the walking path. We stopped at all of the view points and there weren’t any bad views. However, my favorite views were from Pointe-Merry because it offered great views of Mont-Orford.

After our little scenic walk along the lake, we grabbed a bite to eat at Alessa Trattoria. This was in downtown and thankfully we were able to walk there from where we had parked at Pointe-Merry. The restaurant served traditional Italian food. My boyfriend and I both got pasta dishes that we thoroughly enjoyed. My linguine Alfredo was honestly some of the best I’ve ever had.

Larouche Hill Loop Hike

After our delicious lunch, we went back to the Airbnb to relax for a bit before going on a hike. I actually didn’t find the hike until we were relaxing on the couch. It looked promising and we decided to go for it. The hike was pretty easy due to being short and not having a lot of elevation gain.

If you went right where the loop started, it was a very short hike to the viewpoints. However, there were a lot of people going that way so we decided to go left and save the views for last. When we finally got to the first viewpoint, we were blown away not only by the landscape itself, but also the foliage. We were truly blown away. This hike had some seriously great views that didn’t take a lot of effort to get to.

The Journey Home

We woke up Monday morning to rain and decided to head back to Connecticut. Before we left, we stopped at Chez DORA Bakery for some donuts. Everything looked so good that I wished that we had brought a cooler with us to bring other goodies home. I also got a little hot chocolate to warm me up on the cold, rainy morning.

After stocking up on donuts, we started our journey south. I had wanted to stop in the Northeast Kingdom again on our way home, but with the rain, we decided not to stop. We did make a quick stop at Mount Sugar Loaf State Reservation in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, on the way home, though. It was my second time at the park. When I went last year for the first time, there was a ton of haze from wildfires so the views weren’t really all that visible. This time, I was able to properly enjoy the views!

A Nice Getaway in Quebec

Honestly before I went, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but this trip was everything I wanted it to be and more. We stayed in a cute, small town where everything we did was within 30 minutes of our Airbnb. We had everything we could have wanted and needed from restaurants, a ski resort, a national park, a lively city, and even an actual grocery store all within a 30 minute radius. And we got our relaxing, small town feel that we wanted. This trip has definitely made me want to explore more of what Quebec has to offer.