Results tagged “discoverywalk”

Beyond its picnic areas, tennis courts and manicured gardens, High Park is a thriving ecosystem. The Western Ravines and Beaches Discovery Walk explores some of the park’s wild areas, as well as some of the neighbouring regenerated wetlands.

There are more ways to walk and discover this city than just following the city’s Discovery Walk maps. There are an increasing number of guided audio tours that you can download from the Internet and pack into your digital music player before heading out on your expedition. One audio tour company, City Surf, has several neighbourhood tours available for about $10 each. Recently, City Surf teamed up with Waterfront Toronto to offer a free audio tour of the central waterfront area.

The Belt Line Railway opened in July 1892 to service the new neighbourhoods of Rosedale, Moore Park, Forest Hill and Swansea. A recession and competing rail services led to the railway’s closure only 28 months later. Parts of the railway were purchased and used by other companies over the years, but much of the old Belt Line sat abandoned for many years. In 1972, the city purchased a stretch of the railway east of Allen Road to create what would become the Kay Gardner Beltline Park. This is where the Central Ravines, Belt Line and Gardens Discovery Walk begins.

In the summer heat, Toronto’s downtown can seem like a sun-baked, arid domain of asphalt and glass. Scattered throughout the concrete desert, however, are a few oases of green. The Downtown Discovery Walk links the squares, parks and parkettes that can be found in the city’s busy core. And don't worry too much about the heat; there are plenty of places to duck into for shade, refreshments, and air-conditioned comfort along this route.

Garrison Creek once ran through Toronto from its tributaries near what is now St. Clair West, to what was once the shore of Lake Ontario, past the northeast side of Fort York. Development polluted the creek as Toronto began to grow, and in the early 1900s, work began on the burial of Garrison Creek. Long since converted into a sewer, Garrison Creek has completely disappeared from view.

You’ve probably seen them dotting the city: those Discovery Walk signs that seem to pop up when you least expect them. Torontoist has always wanted to explore these intriguing city strolls, and this summer will be taking readers along some of these routes that connect the city’s parks, green spaces and historical sites to the neighbourhoods we live in.