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The Gault Nature Reserve, owned by McGill University, is located at Mont-Saint-Hilaire and protects more than 1,000 hectares of natural forest.

Most of the well-known summits of the mountain are in the western (open to the public) part. They are the Pain de Sucre (Sugar Loaf), 414 m (1,358 ft) high, the Sunrise, 405 m (1,329 ft) high, the Rocky, 403 m (1,322 ft) high, and the Sommet Dieppe (Dieppe Summit), 371 m (1,217 ft) high as well as Burnt Hill(320 m (1,050 ft) high).[4][8]

One theory argues that the city derives its name from the view from atop the Mont Saint-Hilaire. According to this theory, in 1693, shortly before receiving the seigneurie from Frontenac, Joseph Hertel and his brother Jean-Baptiste climbed atop the Mont Saint-Hilaire, where, upon seeing the view, Jean-Baptiste Hertel exclaimed "Quel bel œil!", which, in seventeenth-century French, meant "What a beautiful view!". According to this theory, when he was later granted his seigneurie, Joseph Hertel, remembering the exclamation, chose to name it Belœil (beautiful view). The alternate theory states that the name derives from the like-named town in Belgium, with a wide variety of possible links between the two towns.[10]