High Park Trail

As the second largest municipal park in Toronto, High Park offers a wide variety of woodland trails and recreation areas that are just waiting to be explored. Within the park, you will find beautiful public gardens, a zoo, the Grenadier Restaurant, off-leash dog parks, educational facilities, and well-maintained public areas that are perfect for sitting out on the grass to enjoy a nice picnic. In terms of the trails themselves, they are largely well-maintained and feature small amounts of elevation gain throughout the hilly landscape of the park, which makes for a fun day of adventuring, no matter the season. As previously mentioned, visiting the park in April/May will produce some stunning views of cherry blossoms; however, this time will see the park filled with countless tourists.

Setting out from the parking area near the entrance to High Park, follow the trail to the west and make your way downhill through the tree cover to reach the edge of Wendigo Pond. From here, you will turn to the south and follow along the edge of the water, eventually receiving some beautiful views across the much larger expanse of Grenadier Pond. Shortly after passing some well-manicured gardens on your left, the trail will bend to the east to cut across the southern portion of the park and cross over Spring Creek. After working past the Lower and Upper Duck Ponds, you will climb uphill and pass by the Grenadier Restaurant, which is a great place to sit out on the patio for a nice lunch. From here, you will loop around the forested northeast corner of the park and pass by Ridout Pond before arriving back at the starting point of your hike.