Les Chutes Waber: Full Day Hiking & Paddling Adventure, Québec

Les Chutes Waber (Waber falls) is one of the greatest full-day adventures to discover at La Mauricie National Park. Along this journey you'll immerse yourself in the beauty and splendour of lake Wapizagonke, lake Anticagamac, Lake Waber, and Waber falls. This land and water excursion consists of roughly 9 kilometres (km) of paddling and 9km of hiking. If enjoyed at a leisurely pace this excursion can take roughly 6-8 hours.

Here you'll discover suggestions, highlights, snapshots and tips from our journey to help make your voyage towards les Chutes Waber memorable and magical.

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Lac Anticagamac, La Mauricie National Park

Accessing Les Chutes Waber

The best way to access this nature-filled playground is via the Saint-Mathieu du Parc entrance. From here you'll drive to the lake Wapizagonke picnic area, where you can park your car, and rent canoes or kayaks if needed. We brought our own inflatable paddle board for this adventure (for all our paddle boarding enthusiasts: this was a brilliant idea!).

Assuming you've driven some distance to arrive at the park it could be nice to stretch your legs and warm up your body before sitting (or in my case standing) stationary on your water vessel for the first leg of the journey. We would recommend stopping at Île-Aux-Pins on your drive in. This is a short 10 minute out-and-back trail down to a vista platform that looks out across lake Wapizagonke. Alternatively, the lake Gabet trail is a slightly longer 3km out-and-back trail that journeys through a peaceful stretch of forest before arriving at the tranquil clear waters of lake Gabet (check out this guide for suggested hiking trails in La Mauricie National Park). If you'd prefer to conserve your energy you could simply drive straight to the car park where the Waber falls journey begins.

Lake Wapizagonke

What to Bring

If you plan on travelling by canoe you'll have a lot of flexibility in the way you choose to transport your belongings. If you're planning on using a paddle board we suggest investing in a dry bag. We paddled across in bathers and a t-shirt, so it can be helpful to have somewhere to store your socks, hiking boots, additional clothing, and ample food and water for the journey (lots of snacks and hydration are a great way to keep travelling companions in good spirits throughout this voyage). Fortunately, some members of our entourage used canoes so we were able to offload our belongings into their boats to make our journey on paddle-boards a little lighter and more stable. Even if you venture out on a beautiful summer's day with no wind, consider bringing a jumper or a windbreaker, the weather can be volatile.

Lunch with a view: Our picnic spot looking out over Lake Anticagamac

Paddling across the pristine waters of Lake Wapizagonke

Which route to take?

We visited the national park on a quiet day during the off season so it was a relatively tranquil journey, passing the occasional group of wandering souls. We decided to embark upon our land-water extravangza around 9:00am, as we were happy to take our sweet time. If you're blessed with a zero-breeze day, beautiful blue skies and sunshine it could be advantageous to head out shortly after sunrise, giving yourself ample time to frolic in the waters and surrounding forests of the Waber falls sector of the park.

If you've spoken to someone whose done this before, or you've already been yourself, you may notice the trend of travellers venturing towards Waber falls first and completing a clockwise loop on land. We decided to do the opposite. Rather than parking our boards and canoes to the upper left region of the Wapizagonke basin, we decided to head to the upper right sector. As you paddle in towards the final basin, you'll notice boat racks on land for canoe storage. However, if you paddle a hundred or so metres to the right there'll be a small strip of beach, no wider than four or five metres (Check the map below for reference). This is where we docked our boats and boards.

From here we put on our packs, tied up our shoes and commenced a trail walk towards Lake Anticagamac. We then headed anti-clockwise and made our way towards Waber falls before completing a full circle back to where we'd stationed our belongings. We found this to be a wonderful route as we hardly passed any tourists. There were several groups of people near the Waber falls, however the first portion of our journey was just us and the sounds and serenity of the forest.

If you're up for it, you can portage your water vessel about 2.5km towards lake Anticagamac. We did not do this, although I am very curious to test this method out with my inflatable paddle-board the next time I return to this exquisite region of the park. Lake Anticagamac offers expansive stretches of boundless, blue, blissful waters to discover.

Arriving at the upper basin of Lake Wapizagonke

Something to Consider:

Depending on the time of year you visit Les Chutes Waber, about mid-way through your journey as you traverse between basins, you may need to hop off your water vessel and portage it for several metres where branches have created several consequetive dams around one portion of the lake. This involved getting waist deep in water and lifting our canoes and paddle boards over these barriers. This took maybe an additional 5 minutes to manouver. It certainly added to the fun and adventure of our journey. Something to consider if you were planning on wearing your dry gear on the boat (we would recommend keeping this packed until your ready to hit land for the hiking loop).

Hopping off the paddle board to traverse a shallow body of water

Exploring the vibrant forests of La Mauricie National Park

Les Chute Waber

Les Chutes Waber:

When you arrive at Waber falls you can park yourself on a sturdy rock and enjoy the misty sprays of the cascading river, or you could lounge on the lush, grassy patches skirting nearby Lake Waber. This could be a great place for a picnic, or simply basking in the beauty of La Mauricie National Park. We, however, decided to have our picnic at the panoramic viewing platform of Lake Anticagamac, and we were really grateful for our decision. We encoutered more groups of people around the Waber region as opposed to the Anticagamac region - an embellishment of solitude, serenity and splendour.

A walk through the understory

Memorable Moments & Mother Nature's Magic

We hope this guide for a full-day of fun at les Chutes Waber inspires you to discover the magic of La Mauricie National Park. Give yourself permission to play, wander, and explore according to your own rhythm. There is no need to do the full hiking loop either. You could simply paddle around lake Wapizagonke and meander back to the picnic grounds in your own timing.

If you've visited Waber falls before feel free to share memorable moments of your adventures in the comments below.

May you be well!