Saliem Talash: Toronto's ravines: where to walk, and how to get in

Most big cities keep their nature at the edges. Toronto has it folded into the middle. Rivers and creeks cut deep valleys through the city long before there were streets, and when the city grew, it mostly built around them. The result is a network of wooded ravines you can drop into from an ordinary residential street and, within five minutes, lose the sound of traffic.

The numbers are large. The City describes a ravine system of more than 300 kilometres, and municipal officials have put its area at about 11,000 hectares, around 17% of the city's land, according to a UN Environment Programme report on Toronto's urban forest. Much of it is public parkland with marked trails.

I'm Saliem Talash. I live in Toronto and build practical tools for small businesses, and a ravine walk is how I reset a week. These are five good places to start.

1. Glen Stewart Ravine (the Beach)

Best for: a short, beautiful first walk.

This is the gentlest introduction. A small ravine in the Beach neighbourhood, it follows Ames Creek under tall red oak and red maple, on a trail of boardwalks and stairs. The whole walk is short enough to do before breakfast, and it ends close to Queen Street East and the lake, so you can finish with a coffee and a look at the water.

Getting in: from Kingston Road near Beech Avenue at the north end (fewer stairs), or from Glen Manor Drive, just north of Queen Street East, at the south end. Buses along Kingston Road stop at Glen Manor Drive.

2. Moore Park Ravine to the Brick Works

Best for: a proper walk that ends somewhere worth reaching.

The Moore Park Ravine carries Mud Creek down towards the Don River. The wide, mostly level trail follows the line of the old Belt Line railway, and you can still find the site of the former Moore Park station along it. Walk south and the ravine opens into the Don Valley Brick Works Park.

The Brick Works is the best-known reclaimed site in the valleys. For about a century, the quarry here produced bricks used in Casa Loma, Massey Hall and the Ontario Legislative Building. Production ended in 1989, and the quarry was turned into ponds, meadow and forest, opened to the public in 1997. Climb to the quarry lookout at the north end for a view back over the valley to downtown.

Getting in: from Moore Avenue, where the Beltline Trail drops into the ravine, or at the Brick Works itself, 550 Bayview Avenue. A one-way walk between the two takes well under an hour.

3. Crothers Woods (Don Valley)

Best for: feeling properly in the woods.

Crothers Woods is about 52 hectares of forest, meadow and wetland on the slopes of the lower Don Valley. Many of its trees are more than a century old, including sugar maple, eastern hemlock and butternut, and in 1995 the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority designated it an Environmentally Significant Area. There are about 10 kilometres of trails. They are shared with mountain bikers, so keep right and listen behind you.

Getting in: the main trailhead is at 14 Redway Road, known locally as the Loblaws trailhead.

4. The City's Discovery Walks

Best for: not having to plan anything.

The City's parks division has published a set of self-guided Discovery Walks through ravines, parks and neighbourhoods, each with a route map. The ravine ones include Central Ravines, Belt Line and Gardens; Don Valley Hills and Dales; Western Ravines and Beaches; Northern Ravines and Gardens; Eastern Ravine and Beaches; and Humber River, Old Mill and Marshes. On the ground, the routes are marked with large interpretive signs and small way-finding discs. Download the map for the walk you pick, and follow the discs.

5. The Humber River, Old Mill and Marshes

Best for: the west end, and birds.

On the west side of the city, the Humber valley runs down to Lake Ontario through parkland and marsh. The Discovery Walk for this area follows the river past the Old Mill and down towards the marshes near the lake, where the reeds and open water bring in herons and ducks. It pairs well with a late lunch in Bloor West Village or on the lakeshore.

Getting in: Old Mill subway station on Line 2 puts you right by the river.

Before you go

Ravines are close to the city but they are still woodland. A few habits make the difference:

  • Wear real shoes. Many ravine trails are dirt, roots and stairs, and they turn to mud after rain.
  • Stay on the marked trails. The slopes erode easily, and informal side paths damage the plants holding them together.
  • Watch the weather. Creeks rise quickly in heavy rain, and low trails near the water can flood.
  • Carry water and a charged phone, and check your route before you leave; mobile signal can drop at the bottom of a deep valley.
  • Leash your dog unless you are in a marked off-leash area.
  • Take your litter home. City staff and volunteers pull tonnes of it out of the ravines every year.

Why bother

A ravine walk costs nothing, needs no booking, and is usually a short transit ride from wherever you are staying. You come back with muddy shoes, a quieter head, and a different map of the city: not the grid of streets, but the valleys underneath it.

Sources

  • City of Toronto: Ravine Strategy
  • UN Environment Programme: how Canada's biggest city built an urban forest
  • City of Toronto: Where to walk (Discovery Walks)
  • City of Toronto: Trails
  • Don Valley Brick Works
  • Crothers Woods
  • Lost Rivers: the Moore Park Ravine reach
  • blogTO: Glen Stewart Ravine; Moore Park Ravine

Drafted with AI assistance.

More from Saliem Talash: saliemtalash.vercel.app · ZELR · YouTube

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