Located in Scarborough, Rouge National Urban Park is the largest urban park in North America. The park features a number of trails through wetlands, forests, meadows, and along the coast of Lake Ontario. At the start of the pandemic Rouge National Urban Park became our go-to place to hike due to its close proximity to where we live. We haven’t been in a few months, so with pleasant weather on the forecast, we decided to return to enjoy the fall colours.

We've been starting to go a bit stir crazy working from home this past week because of the COVID-19 outbreak. So after work we decided we needed a change of scenery and went for a hike. Since traffic has been pretty light on the roads, we drove to the Rouge National Urban Park, which is located about 25 minutes from where we live. The park is the largest urban park in North America and features a number of trails through wetlands, forests, and meadows.

We headed out early in the morning so we wouldn't have to deal with traffic. Turns out Parks Canada was holding a special event for Family Day at the Rouge National Urban Park, so this worked out well as it would likely get busier later in the day. We parked at the Parks Canada Visitor Welcome Area, behind the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre off Zoo Road. We walked about a kilometre or so along the road, which is closed in the winter, to get to the trailhead for the Cedar Trail and the Beare Wetlands Loop (4.5km roundtrip).

The Rouge National Urban Park has become one of my regular areas to hike ever since I started the 52 Hike Challenge back in January. It is the largest urban park in North America and features a number of trails that weave their way through forests, meadows and marshes. Sure, being in such close proximity to one of the largest cities in Canada does have its drawbacks (the hydro lines are a bit of an eyesore and you can still hear the hum from the neighbouring highway), but it is located close to home, which is super convenient.

We initially planned to spend the weekend up north snowshoeing near Kingston, but given all the rain over the past two days, we decided to stay in Toronto. This was probably a good call as most of the snow from the storm from the previous weekend had already melted. And it's a bit hard to snowshoe without much snow.

Last weekend we had a snowstorm (and first snowfall of the year). Given all the rain we had earlier this morning, we were a bit concerned of the conditions on the trails. But despite the rain, we forced ourselves to still go hiking. We went to the Rouge National Urban Park, which is the largest urban park in North America. The park features a number of trails through wetlands, forests, meadows, and along the coast of Lake Ontario. Even though it's only a 25min drive from where we live, we have yet to visit this urban park.