2 Summer Hiking Spots That Aren't The Toronto Islands.

While a common misconception is that to escape the city, one needs to go to the Toronto Islands and especially in summer, stand in now infamous long lines for the ferry or pay a pricey water taxi fare to sometimes even get back to the city, these 2 other personal favourite hiking spots, while popular with locals living nearby, are not as well known otherwise and tend to stay fairly manageable in terms of crowds all year-round and offer a slightly more active hiking experience while still being transit accessible and reasonable close to the city.

Rouge Urban National Park

"Wow it feels like we are somewhere completely else, I cannot believe this was only a 30 min drive from downtown", A friend enthusiastically exclaimed as we parked the car and walked down the long asphalt path from the parking lot near the Toronto Zoo, to enter the national park.

True to the "national park" part in its name, it was more as if we had just taken a 3 hour drive and were now in the middle of nowhere. My favourite part about this national park is how one, through the ability to spend hours walking through different terrain types, can get lost in anything from lush Sugar Maple forests, to pine forests with rushing rivers, to wide open spaces that in summer could easily be mistaken for southern Spain. Its large size also means that even in summer it never feels too crowded and one can experience a sense of calm that can usually only be found when driving out of the GTA proper.

When visiting this park for the first time, although there are endless options, I highly recommend starting out with the Vista Trail, which after a short stop at the highly recommended viewpoint, meanders down through a forest, offering views of the valley below before coming through a recently renovated pine forest section (finally removing the need to walk along the road across the bridge) where the trail will go back up for a challenging bit of exercise where you can enjoy another view of the same stunning valley below.

A visit to this park is best rounded off with a 30 minute sunset walk up Beare Hill mountain to enjoy a beautiful view of the surrounding area. This newly opened section offers both a shallower gradient trail that offers stunning 360 degree views of the surrounding area, and a tougher trail to more steeply but quickly climb up the mountain.

 More experienced hikers can plan a multiple hour hike from the parking lot near the Toronto Zoo (accessible by bus 86 and covered by regular TTC fares and passes) and finish off the day after crossing the park, by relaxing at Rouge Beach or continuing on to Rouge Hill station on the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail, which is worth a visit in its own right.

Rouge National Urban Park can be easily accessed by the 86 bus from TTC’s Kennedy Station or seasonally with the TTC 200 bus from Rouge Hill station which is a quick 30 min trip from Union Station on GO’s Lakeshore East Line and allows you to see snippets of both parks in the same day.

 By car, the park can be easily reached by following the Toronto Zoo and Meadowvale Rd signs from the 401 highway.

High Park:

While this park could on first glance easily be mistaken for any other well manicured city park that you could find anywhere in the world (apart from of course the stunning Cherry Trees which blossom from the end of April until early May, attracting large numbers of visitors), it actually has a big hidden surprise in that by entering the park from Bloor Street and walking anti-clockwise and taking one of the smaller steeper trails down into the forest, one suddenly enters a larger area that has been preserved in the original savannah style, enabling one to walk next to the Grenadier Pond, and especially from spring to autumn, see swans and turtles near the Grenadier Pond and enjoy nature from one of the many benches.

This trail then eventually leads back up to the main loop, where after a short but steep walk uphill, one can take a well deserved coffee or lunch break at the Grenadier Cafe before either finishing off on the Centre Rd loop (be aware that during weekdays cars are allowed to drive here so keep an eye on kids or pets) or discovering more of the park through continuing east towards the streetcar loop, or walking down to Sunnyside Beach. 

Personally when visiting this park, I love to make a full-loop, starting anti-clockwise on Colborne Lodge Rd, going down to the Grenadier Pond, walking all the way back up and then continuing along Spring Rd towards the streetcar loop and walking up Parkside Dr. The park's varied terrain definitely makes good exercise for anyone who doesn’t just want to do a walk on level terrain and wants to avoid the busier more well-known section of the park.

High Park can be visited all year round and depending on where you’re coming from can either be accessed from it’s namesake High Park TTC Station, nearby Keele TTC station or the High Park streetcar loop on the 506 streetcar route (A great way to spend a relaxing afternoon by first stopping for lunch in one of Little Italy’s many restaurants and then coming back to the city using the subway) although this route is much slower as car traffic often fills the lane. 

These 2 locations are easy enough to access from the city itself, yet feel like you’re somewhere completely different.