Park sights in Toronto
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Scarborough Bluffs
The Scarborough Bluffs are a 14km stretch of glacial lakeshore cliffs. Elizabeth Simcoe named it in 1793 after Scarborough in Yorkshire, England. Several parks provide access to cliff tops, with views across Lake Ontario. From Kingston Rd (Hwy 2), turn south at Cathedral Bluffs Dr to reach the highest section of the bluffs, Cathedral Bluffs Park (65m). Erosion has created cathedral spire formations, exposing evidence of five different glacial periods. You can also access the shore at Galloway Rd further east. Below this section of bluffs off Brimley Rd, landfill has been used to form Bluffer’s Park, a private marina and recreational area. Unless you have wheels, getting t…
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Hanlan’s Point
At the west end of Centre Island by the Toronto City Centre Airport is Hanlan’s Point, named after world-champion sculler ‘Ned’ Hanlan (1855–1904), a member of the first family to permanently settle here. Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run here in 1914 while playing minor-league baseball – the ball drowned in Lake Ontario, the ultimate souvenir lost forever… The sport of iceboating atop the frozen lake was at its peak until the 1940s. Thanks to climate change, winters nowadays are too mild for it. Beyond the free tennis courts and a fragile ecosystem of low-lying dunes sustaining rare species, the not-so-rare nekkid humanus roams free on the gray sa…
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Tommy Thompson Park
A 5km-long artificial peninsula between the Harbourfront and The Beaches, Tommy Thompson Park reaches further into Lake Ontario than the Toronto Islands. This ‘accidental wilderness’ – constructed from Outer Harbour dredgings and fill from downtown building sites – has become a phenomenal wildlife success. It’s one of the world’s largest nesting places for ring-billed gulls, and is a haven for terns, black-crowned night herons, turtles, owls, foxes, even coyotes. The park is open to the public on weekends and holidays; cars and pets are prohibited. Summer schedules offer interpretive programs and guided walks, usually with an ecological theme.
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C
Spadina Quay Wetlands
A former lakeside parking lot has been transformed into the 2800-sq-meter Spadina Quay Wetlands, a thriving, sustainable ecosystem full of frogs, birds and fish. When lakeside fishers noticed that northern pike were spawning here each spring, the city took it upon itself to create this new habitat. Complete with flowering heath plants, poplar trees and a birdhouse, it’s a little gem leading the way in Harbourfront redevelopment. Aside from the pike, look for monarch butterflies, mallard ducks, goldfinches, dragonflies and red-winged blackbirds.
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