If you drive a few hours outside Toronto, you can visit some truly beautiful places. But not everyone has the means of transportation or the time to travel 3 hours to go for a hike in Algonquin Park or swim in the Grotto in Tobermory. Sometimes we need ways to escape Toronto without actually leaving the city are needed.
Here are my top 5 picks for places to escape the city without actually leaving Toronto; and all of them are just a subway, streetcar, bike ride or walk away.
Don Valley
First on our list is the Don Valley. Running right down the East side of the city, the Don Valley is home to almost 9km of trails and green space. It is the perfect place to go for a walk, run, bike, and much more. Beside the extensive trail system runs the Don River. The Don Valley didn’t always use to be a green space though. Today you can still see traces of urbanization within the Valley. Back in 1795, the first sawmill was erected in the valley. Shortly after many other businesses started developing within the valley. With the economy of the area booming the ecology and culture were suffering. With this new urbanization of the Don was prone to flooding. With more paved surfaces it prevented stormwater from being absorbed into the soil. In 1954 Hurricane Hazel whipped out most of the infrastructure within the Don Valley and put the whole city underwater. In the wake of the flood, the city of Toronto created the Metropolitan and Toronto Region Conservation Authority. This new Conservation Authority started the rejuvenation of the Don Valley and Humber River (on the west side of Toronto). Over the past 70 years’ nature has been taking back its space within the Don Valley. Today you can see the Salmon run in the fall and sometimes even see deer grazing in the grass. With many kilometers of walking and biking trails, it’s one of the best places to escape the urban metropolises.
Evergreen Brick Works
The Brick Works has a very interesting history attached to the city of Toronto. After the fire of 1902, the city of Toronto made it where buildings were no longer allowed to be made out of wooden frames. With this, the city needed a place to get bricks developed. With the Brickworks being the closest quarry to the city, it quickly became a large industrial complex. Up until the late 1980s, the Brickworks was still an active quarry. Once the quarry was decommissioned, they filled back in the hole; which was almost 50 meters deep. Today you can still see some of the old infrastructure of the Brick Works. The quarry itself has been repurposed into green space with marshland for animals such as beavers and a few kilometers of hiking trails. The buildings that still stand have been repurposed into Cafes, office buildings for camp programs, and Outward bound. On Sundays, there is a farmers’ market that draws hundreds of people.
Leslie Street Spit (Tommy Thompson Park)
The Leslie Street Spit is probably one of my favourite locations within Toronto. Besides the fact that the shoreline is made from bricks and concrete. The Leslie Street Spit, also known as Tommy Thompson Park is a man made peninsula extending 5km into Lake Ontario. With the construction of Toronto, the city needed places to dump all of the clean waste that was being dug up for the construction of the skyscrapers. Over the last 60 years, the Leslie Street Spit has been used as a dumping ground for this clean waste. Today with the dumping completed, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has designated the park is as an Environmentally Significant Area and an Important Bird Area. Many birds use the Leslie Street Spit as a place to stop in their migration. Almost any day of the week you can go down to the Leslie Street Spit and find a bird photographer with a huge lens. With the Leslie Street Spit extending out into Lake Ontario, it is a perfect spot to sit and watch the sunset behind the building.
Glen Manor Ravine
Regarded as the Pandemic walk, the Glen manor ravine the perfect spot to escape the city area of the Toronto Beaches. With 12 hectares smack in the middle of the Beaches, the Glen Manor Ravine is the perfect place to explore and go on a mid-day walk in a natural environment.
Bluffers Park
Standing 25 meters tall the limestone walls at the Scarborough Bluffs are a sight to behold. Spanning around 15km the Bluffs escarpment has lots of different little parks along it. Bluffers Park is the most eastern park and the only one with beach access. Bluffers Park is a great location for a walk, run, sightseeing and if you are brave enough you could toss on a wetsuit and try and go surfing on Lake Ontario.
Although the Cliffs look like they would make great climbing it is actually the complete opposite. The limestone cliffs are very brittle and are constantly eroding. When viewing the cliffs be sure to stay within the boundaries and if viewing from above don’t go too close to the edge as it could collapse on you.
City of Toronto. (2020). Scarborough Bluffs. Retrieved from https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/parks-gardens-beaches/scarborough-bluffs/ Evergreen. (2020a). History of the Don Valley. Retrieved from https://donrivervalleypark.ca/about-the-park/history/ Evergreen. (2020b). History of the Evergreen Brickworks. Retrieved from https://www.evergreen.ca/evergreen-brick-works/what-is-evergreen-brick-works/history/ TRCA. (2020). About Tommy Thompson Park. Retrieved from https://tommythompsonpark.ca/about/
