Thanksgiving Camping in Quebec: Where Montreal and Ottawa Campers Can Still Get a Site
Thanksgiving is the last big camping weekend of the year in Quebec too, and for car campers it’s also the weekend when campgrounds start to close. On October 2 we checked every one of the 4,709 Sépaq campsites in the parks within a few hours of Montreal and Ottawa, plus Gatineau Park and La Mauricie, for every night from Thursday Oct 8 to Sunday Oct 18.
Quick answer: On Thanksgiving Saturday, Oct 10, the famous parks are mostly gone: Mont-Tremblant has 49 open sites out of 846, Mont-Orford 6 of 463 and Yamaska 2 of 174. But there’s real room close to both cities. Near Montreal, Oka, about 55 minutes from downtown, has 118 sites free for all three nights, all but a handful in one campground (La Crête). Near Ottawa, Lac-Simon has 126 and Gatineau Park’s Lac Philippe area has 138 open on Saturday. A lot of the “no” at the big parks isn’t full, it’s closed: on Saturday, 305 of Tremblant’s sites and 205 of Oka’s are already closed for the season.
1. Saturday Oct 10, by drive time
| Park | From Montreal | From Ottawa | Open Sat Oct 10 | Open all 3 nights (Fri–Sun) | Closed for the season Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oka | ~55 min | ~2 h | 124 of 881 | 118 | 205 |
| Yamaska | ~1 h 15 | ~3 h | 2 of 174 | 1 | 1 |
| Mont-Orford | ~1 h 15 | ~3 h 15 | 6 of 463 | 6 | 156 |
| Plaisance | ~2 h | ~50 min | 23 of 165 | 23 | 1 |
| Mont-Tremblant | ~2 h | ~2 h 30 | 49 of 846 | 46 | 305 |
| La Mauricie (Parks Canada) | ~2 h 15 | ~4 h | at least 28 of 313 | at least 24 | n/a |
| Lac-Simon | ~2 h 30 | ~1 h 30 | 126 of 346 | 126 | 3 |
| Mont-Mégantic | ~2 h 30 | ~4 h 30 | 5 of 92 | 4 | 0 |
| Gatineau Park, Lac Philippe area (NCC) | ~2 h 45 | ~40 min | 138 of 291 | 138 | n/a |
| Frontenac (Quebec) | ~3 h | ~4 h 45 | 17 of 208 | 16 | 2 |
| Jacques-Cartier | ~3 h 15 | ~5 h | 3 of 184 | 3 | 8 |
Drive times are Google Maps estimates from downtown Montreal (Place Ville Marie) and downtown Ottawa (Parliament Hill) to the park, without traffic. Long-weekend Fridays will be slower. Sépaq parks book numbered campsites; ready-to-camp units and cabins aren’t counted. Sépaq requires two nights for Friday and Saturday arrivals.
The pattern is the same one we saw in Ontario: the parks people already know (Tremblant, Orford, Yamaska) are full or closing, and the ones with room are a little less famous or a little further from the highway everyone takes.
2. From Montreal: Oka, not Tremblant
Oka is the surprise. It’s the biggest Sépaq campground in the province, about 55 minutes from downtown, and it has 118 sites you can book for all three Thanksgiving nights. They’re almost all in one place: La Crête has 119 open sites on Saturday, and 114 of them are free Friday to Sunday. The rest of the park tells a different story: Le Méandre (2 open), Les Dunes (2) and Le Refuge (1) are booked, and De l’Anse is closed for the season.
One note if you don’t mind leaving the car: Îles-de-Boucherville, about 30 minutes from downtown, isn’t car camping. Its Grosbois sites are 3 km from the parking lot, reached on foot, by bike or by boat, and 44 of the 75 are open for the whole weekend. The park’s only drive-in sites, 15 in its RV area, have none open on Saturday.
Mont-Tremblant still has 46 sites free for all three nights, but they’re scattered: 18 at Lac-Monroe, 17 at La Sablonnière, 6 at Lac-des-Sables. Lac-Chat (0 of 91 open) and La Volière (2 of 97) are booked. Lac-Escalier, Lac-Caché and Savane-Ouest are already closed for the season.
The Eastern Townships are tight. Mont-Orford has 6 open sites, all at Le Vallonnier; Lac-Stukely is completely booked and Lac-Fraser is closed. Yamaska has 2 of 174.
3. From Ottawa: the Outaouais has the most room in the province
If you live in Ottawa, this is your weekend. The three parks closest to the city all have space, and two of them have a lot:
- Gatineau Park, 40 minutes away: 138 open sites in the Lac Philippe area on Saturday, all of them bookable for the full weekend. Lac Taylor is the exception, with 1 of 32 open.
- Lac-Simon, about 1.5 hours away: 126 sites open for all three nights. It closes after Thanksgiving Sunday, so this is the last weekend of its season.
- Plaisance, about 50 minutes away: 23 sites open for the weekend. 11 of them are in the Fer-à-Cheval RV area; the main campground has 12.
The Outaouais is also where the colour is likely to be best on the long weekend (see section 5).
4. Further out: Frontenac, La Mauricie and Mont-Mégantic
Quebec’s Parc national de Frontenac (not the Ontario park of the same name, which was full for canoe trippers in our Ontario Thanksgiving check) has 17 open sites on Saturday, mostly at Saint-Daniel. La Mauricie, the national park, had at least 28 open sites on Saturday. Mont-Mégantic (5 of 92) and Jacques-Cartier (3 of 184) are effectively full.
5. Where the colours will be
Quebec doesn’t publish a park-by-park colour report like Ontario Parks does. The closest thing is Bonjour Québec’s regional peak forecast:
| Region | Parks | Forecast peak |
|---|---|---|
| Laurentides | Mont-Tremblant | 1st week of October |
| Outaouais | Gatineau Park, Plaisance, Lac-Simon | 2nd to 3rd week of October |
| Mauricie | La Mauricie | 2nd week of October |
| Eastern Townships (Orford area) | Mont-Orford, Yamaska | 3rd week of October |
| Eastern Townships (Mégantic area) | Mont-Mégantic, Frontenac | 1st week of October |
| Quebec City area | Jacques-Cartier | 1st week of October |
Thanksgiving falls in the second week of October. Read against the forecast, that puts Tremblant and Jacques-Cartier a little past their peak, and the Outaouais and La Mauricie close to theirs. (This is our reading of a forecast, not an observed report, and forecasts shift with the weather.) The parks most likely to be at their best over the long weekend are also the ones near Ottawa with the most open sites.
6. After Thanksgiving, “full” turns into “closed”
On Sépaq’s booking pages, a closed campground looks the same as a full one. Night by night, here’s where the season ends:
- Mont-Orford, Lac-Simon and Jacques-Cartier take their last booking on Sunday Oct 11.
- Mont-Mégantic closes after Monday Oct 12.
- Mont-Tremblant's last bookable night is Saturday Oct 17. It still had 134 open sites that night.
- Oka, Plaisance, Frontenac and Yamaska are still open on the Oct 16–18 weekend, with plenty of room: on Saturday Oct 17, Oka had 253 open sites, Frontenac 167, Plaisance 114 and Yamaska 64. At Oka, the open sites move to Le Refuge and Les Dunes, because La Crête closes after Thanksgiving.
If you can’t get Thanksgiving, the weekend after is much easier near Montreal. Near Ottawa, Lac-Simon will be closed by then, but Plaisance had 114 open sites on Saturday Oct 17. (We only checked Gatineau Park for the Thanksgiving weekend itself.)
How we know all this
This is one Campaid check run on October 2, 2026. For Sépaq, we read the calendar of every one of the 4,709 campsites in these parks, so each night from Oct 8 to Oct 18 was checked separately, for every site. That’s what tells “closed” apart from “booked”: Sépaq marks closed nights itself, and we count them separately. Gatineau Park and La Mauricie come from the same live check Campaid runs for Parks Canada and the NCC. Campaid does this for Sépaq, Ontario Parks, Parks Canada, BC Parks and more. Try it free.
A few things to keep in mind. These counts are numbered campsites only: ready-to-camp tents, cabins and other roofed units aren’t included. We left out Sépaq’s wildlife reserves (Papineau-Labelle, La Vérendrye, Mastigouche and Rouge-Matawin): in October, their campsites showed as unavailable even on weeknights, which looks like the fall hunting season rather than a sold-out weekend, and we couldn’t tell the two apart from the data. La Mauricie’s count is a floor, because two of its campground maps couldn’t be read. And this is a single check, eight days before the weekend. The Saturday numbers will keep falling.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still go camping in Quebec for Thanksgiving? Yes. On October 2, Oka had 118 campsites bookable for all three nights (Oct 9–11), Lac-Simon had 126, and Gatineau Park’s Lac Philippe area had 138 open on Saturday. Mont-Tremblant, Mont-Orford and Yamaska were close to full.
Where can I go car camping near Montreal for Thanksgiving? Oka, about 55 minutes from downtown, had 118 sites free for all three nights, almost all at the La Crête campground. If you’re happy to walk or bike in, Îles-de-Boucherville’s Grosbois campground (about 30 minutes away, 3 km from the parking lot) had 44.
Where can I camp near Ottawa for Thanksgiving? Gatineau Park (about 40 minutes) had 138 open sites around Lac Philippe on Saturday Oct 10. Lac-Simon (about 1.5 hours) had 126 sites free all weekend, and Plaisance (about 50 minutes) had 23.
Is Mont-Tremblant full for Thanksgiving? Almost. 49 of its 846 campsites were open on Saturday Oct 10, mostly at Lac-Monroe and La Sablonnière. Another 305 sites were closed for the season that night. Tremblant’s last bookable night this year is Oct 17.
When do Sépaq campgrounds close in the fall? In the booking system: Mont-Orford, Lac-Simon and Jacques-Cartier after Sunday Oct 11, Mont-Mégantic after Oct 12, Mont-Tremblant after Oct 17. Oka, Plaisance, Frontenac and Yamaska were still bookable on Oct 18.
Where will the fall colours be best at Thanksgiving in Quebec? Bonjour Québec’s forecast puts the Outaouais peak in the second to third week of October and La Mauricie’s in the second week, so Gatineau Park, Plaisance, Lac-Simon and La Mauricie are the likeliest to be near their best on the long weekend. The Laurentides, including Tremblant, are forecast to peak in the first week of October.
Campaid checks live availability across Sépaq, Ontario Parks, Parks Canada, BC Parks and more. It checks each night separately, tells you when a park is closed rather than full, and finds split stays when no single site is free. Try it free.