Rouge National Urban Park

The Largest Urban Park In North America At About 79.1 Square Kilometres And Canada'S First National Urban Park; Reachable By Public Transit From Downtown Toronto, And Containing Working Farms, Carolinian Forest And 10,000 Years Of Human History · Toronto, Ontario

Rouge is THE LARGEST URBAN PARK IN NORTH AMERICA at about seventy-nine square kilometres - roughly twenty-two times Central Park - and it was Canada's first NATIONAL URBAN PARK, created in 2015 after decades of campaigning by local residents who had watched the development line creep toward the valley. It sits inside the Greater Toronto Area and YOU CAN REACH IT BY PUBLIC TRANSIT, which is the point: Parks Canada's other holdings need a car and a long drive, and this one is a bus ride. Inside it are things that do not usually share a boundary - CAROLINIAN FOREST at the northern edge of its range, one of the last large wetlands on the Toronto waterfront, WORKING FARMS still under cultivation on some of the best soil in Canada, a Rouge Beach on Lake Ontario, and archaeological evidence of human presence going back about ten thousand years, including Huron-Wendat village sites.

Rouge Valley, Toronto, Markham and Pickering, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

OPEN YEAR-ROUND AND FREE - THERE IS NO ENTRY FEE TO ROUGE NATIONAL URBAN PARK, which is unusual among Parks Canada sites and deliberate, because the park exists to be used by the people who live around it. TRAILS ARE OPEN DAILY FROM DAWN TO DUSK; the Rouge Valley Visitor Centre and the campground operate seasonally with their own hours. GLEN ROUGE CAMPGROUND, the only campground within Toronto, is reservable through Parks Canada and operates roughly May to October. ROUGE BEACH ON LAKE ONTARIO is open in summer with seasonal supervision. IT IS REACHABLE BY PUBLIC TRANSIT - GO Transit and TTC both serve points near the park, which is a genuine distinction among national parks. PARKING LOTS AT THE MAIN TRAILHEADS FILL ON FINE WEEKENDS. Some trails close in wet conditions to prevent erosion.

Rouge National Urban Park on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos