With the nice weather finally here, Toronto families are desperate for some sunshine and play. Luckily for us, we live in a city filled with greenscape and have some of the nicest parks in the world. The City of Toronto has hundreds of parks and while we can’t feature all of them, we do plan to do the major ones. In our first of a regular series, we feature Toronto’s most famous park of all — High Park.
One of my favourite memories from when I was little was piling into the old station wagon with my parents and various cousins and friends for the hour-long drive to High Park. The trips were a regular pastime, but definitely our most favourite time of year to go was in the fall when the leaves of the numerous trees were afire with their autumnal glow.
We’d spend the whole day at the park, walking around, rolling down hills, feeding the swans, and tooling around in the most magical playground my adolescent eyes had ever seen. That was when there was a long slide built into the hillside (looking at that slide-less hill now, it doesn’t seem quite as steep as I remember. Anyone else remember the slide or know why it was removed?). It’s a cherished memory of mine.
I live in the city now with my husband and our two boys and trips to High Park are still a special event. My parents still make the drive each fall to join us for a romp in the leaves. And this year, for his first time, my 9-week-old son accompanied my four-year-old and me on on our annual pilgrimage to the park to view the cherry blossoms in bloom and spend the day making new memories.
About High Park:
High Park is Toronto’s largest park situated entirely within the city, spanning 161 hectares. Its history goes back to the 1830s when John George Howard purchased the land and used it to build his family’s residence on: Colborne Lodge, a Regency-style cottage and another popular Toronto attraction, was designed in 1837 to complement its natural surroundings. John lived there with his wife and they named their property ‘High Park’ as it was situated on the highest point of land along the Humber Bay shoreline.High Park is a mixed recreational and natural park that includes sporting facilities, cultural facilities, educational facilities, gardens, playgrounds, and all-time family favourite, the zoo. I was also surprised to learn that it has an outdoor pool, as well as a splash pad.
About a third of the park is in a natural state, with a rare oak savannah ecology.
The park is located west of downtown, north of Humber Bay. It stretches south from Bloor Street West to The Queensway, just north of Lake Ontario. It is bounded on the west by Ellis Park Road and Grenadier Pond and on the east by Parkside Drive.
We’ll definitely be frequenting the park this summer (ever since our trip last week, my son has been asking me on a daily basis when we can go back). Parking’s a nightmare so take transit or prepare to camp out in front of a stretch of spots in hopes that someone will leave.
For more info on High Park, visit highparktoronto.com.
If you have any fond memories of High Park, or any other park across Canada, please share them with us in the comments below or via email at parks@criticizethis.ca.
