10 terrific GTA trails
With the weather warming up, the outdoors beckons. After a long, dreary winter, GTA residents are excited about discarding down jackets and boots and slipping into hoodies and running shoes. It’s time to get those feet moving, and, luckily, there’s no need to go far. The GTA has many trails that provide the chance for exercise while enjoying a landscape that belies the urban environment. For an enjoyable local hike, make time to explore what this part of the province has to offer:
Rouge National Urban Park
Welcome to Canada’s first urban national park. Across from the Toronto Zoo, Rouge offers visitors 10 hiking trails ranging from 0.5 to 7.6 kilometres. Some are easy, others require moderate skill with elevation gains of 20 metres up to 173 metres. Walk through Carolinian forests, traverse an old logging route, or visit wetlands, meadows and grasslands. It’s a nice place to picnic, and you can fish in the Rouge and tributaries if you have a licence.
The park boasts more than 1,000 species of plants, 247 bird species, 73 fish species, 44 mammal species, and 27 reptile and amphibian species.
Doris McCarthy Trail
Named for the Toronto artist who lived in the Scarborough Bluffs area, this trail takes walkers and offroad cyclists down a moderately steep hill to the shore of Lake Ontario and meanders along the base of the bluffs. See the sculpture that pays homage to McCarthy, view the cliffs, bird watch and stop for a picnic along the rocks. It is also known as Gates Gully because the Gates Inn and Tavern stood nearby during the Upper Canada Rebellion and served as a rallying spot for the Scarborough Militia that defended Toronto.
Leslie Street Spit
East of Cherry Beach on Ashbridge’s Bay sits Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Street Spit. The spit is a human-created peninsula jutting into the bay. It is a stopover for migrating birds. These critters share the space with eager walkers, cyclists, runners and rollerbladers. The park’s flat, paved, multi-use trail runs most of the length of the spit. There are also designated pedestrian trails and nature trails that bring visitors closer to the park’s wildlife.
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
A cemetery trail may sound macabre, but it is also quiet and beautifully landscaped. The cemetery is not only a burial place, but an arboretum with many old, magnificent trees. It’s so popular with locals, cemetery manager the Mount Pleasant Group has created one, three and five-kilometre trails. The grounds are well maintained yearround and walkers, runners and cyclists can enjoy cherry blossoms in season, as well as blooming magnolias, chestnut trees and other species. For a bit of cemetery tourism, visitors can seek the graves of musician Glenn Gould, prime ministers William Lyon MacKenzie King and John Turner, and Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best, discoverers of insulin.
Kay Gardner Beltline Trail
This trail is a wonderful option for a drizzly day because it is protected by tree canopy for much of its 4.5 kilometres. The dirt trail follows the rail bed of the old Toronto Belt Line Railway, stretching from Mount Pleasant Road to the Allen Expressway. Very popular with walkers, runners, cyclists and dog walkers and wide enough for physically distanced walks, it passes through Forest Hill and its rest stops are named for train stations of old. Iron horses line the bridge overlooking the subway line at Yonge Street, a favourite with children.
Humber River Recreational Trail, South
The contiguous southern portion of this popular trail begins at Etienne Brulé Park near the Old Mill. It wends its way north through green spaces, around Baby Point, through Magwood Park and Lambton Woods and on to Lambton Park, home to the James Gardens. There are parallel routes, a paved multi-use path and a gravel/ dirt trail for pedestrians. It is a lovely, albeit popular, urban wilderness, and you’ll find birds, animals and wildflowers along its banks.
Waterfront Trail
If you’ve been to Harbourfront recently, you’ll have noticed wellused walking and cycling lanes along Front Street. They are part of the 3,600-kilometre Great Lakes Waterfront Trail, which has three local sections: Etobicoke, Toronto and Scarborough. Its path is largely along the waterfront from Mimico in the west to Rouge Beach in the east. It wanders through Humber
Bay Shores, Sunnyside Park, Queens Quay and Harbourfront, Cherry Beach and the Port Lands.
Bruce Trail
For an excursion outside the city, enjoy hiking or walking along one of Ontario’s most iconic trails. The Bruce Trail stretches 900 kilometres along the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara to Tobermory along with many side paths. It is considered Canada’s oldest and longest marked footpath. The section closest to Toronto runs from Milton to Cheltenham, about 50 kilometres. Hikers and walkers will see karst formations common to the escarpment: rock that has been eaten away by acidic water. Enjoy the forests, wetlands and farmlands as you trek along.
Nassagaweya Canyon Trail
This 4.6-kilometre hike links two of Halton’s conservation areas, Rattlesnake Point and Crawford Lake. If you do the round trip, allow four to five hours. You’ll walk along the cliff line and through forests, see 1,000-year-old cedar trees, watch turkey vultures soaring on thermals and have a chance to explore the caves. Once you arrive at Crawford Lake, soak up Indigenous culture at the reconstructed 15th-century Iroquoian village. Excavations here led to the discovery of thousands of artifacts and 11 longhouses, three of which have been reconstructed based on archeological details and house interpretive programs. Note: Halton conservation areas charge for entry.
Tew Falls and Dundas Peak
If you like your waterfalls more intimate than Niagara, the Spencer Gorge Conservation Area in Dundas offers a good alternative. At Tew Falls, the water from Logan’s Creek tumbles 41 metres into the Spencer Gorge. By comparison, Horseshoe Falls is 52 metres high. From the falls, the trail takes you through the forest on to Dundas Peak at the mouth of the gorge and offers excellent views as far as Hamilton Harbour. It’s a loop trail and requires a reservation.