The Rouge National Urban Park is a large park that is still under development. I would say it's in its infancy stages at the moment. There are some good trails but more will need to be created, signage will need to be improved upon and parking is definitely an issue that will need to be addressed! Very few spots are available at some of the most popular trail locations.
There are different trails meandering through different environments. There are trails through forested areas, along river beds and through meadows. Even a marsh and beach trail.
We had a plan on which trails we wanted to do, a few of our favourites. With our stuff loaded into the car, we headed over to our very first trail location. For us, it's about an hour of travel time. We quickly learned though that many others too thought they'd take advantage of the beautiful day we were having!
Our first trail was to be the Woodland Trail. To access this trail we had to drive past the entrance to the Toronto Zoo. Well, being the nice day it was and a holiday, there were many people who thought a trip to the zoo was in order causing a massive traffic jam! We had a quick change of plans and instead headed towards the Twyn Rivers area to hike the Mast trail. Remember the small parking lot issue I mentioned earlier? When we arrived there were no parking spots available. Another change of plans, we headed to the marsh and beach trails. Here we finally found parking!
It was nice to finally get out of the car and stretch our legs. We grabbed our photography gear and headed on our way. There were many people out but it was still a nice walk along the marsh. There were many red-winged blackbirds flying around and I finally saw some of the females. Male red-wings arrive at the nesting locations before the females. There were also some double-crested cormorants with their beautiful blue eyes. Unfortunately they were too far out for me to get any good photographs of them. Many swallows flying around the boardwalk as well.
After a bit of walking we thought we'd head back to the Twyn Rivers Area and try our luck at finding parking. As we had expected, no parking. We headed back out and stopped at the Glen Eagles Vista Trail head which had parking spots available. We had never done this trail so we thought we'd check it out. This trail isn’t far from a major roadway (in fact, some of it is alongside the road) so traffic could be heard occasionally. As the name implies, this is a vista trail that offers scenic views of the Rouge River and Little Rouge Creek valleys. I’m sure it is absolutely stunning in the fall with all the different colours. Besides the scenic views, I saw a couple of American robins and American goldfinches.
The Mast Trail was very busy with many people walking this trail and setting up small picnics by the Rouge Creek. Not my ideal as I like trails to be quiet but being the day it was, I had expected the crowds. It was still nice to be out though. Once we did part of the trail, we headed back to the car at the Glen Eagles Vista parking lot.
We still had some time before we had to head back home and thought maybe we should try our luck and head over to the Woodland Trail. Would we find parking at this time? Had people gone home for dinner with their family? Turns out there were a couple of spots and we were able to park the car and head out on the trail.
The Woodland Trail is a mix of forest and meadow. It's been one of my favourites for wildlife viewing and insect macro photography. There's also a little trail by the river. There were many people but it was still nice.
All in all, it was a nice day of hiking even with the few little hiccups due to parking issues. I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked but I am happy with the few that I did get even though they are of red-winged blackbirds, a quite common bird at this time of year.  |
| Red-Winged Blackbird (female) |
 |
| Red-Winged Blackbird (male) |
 |
| Red-Winged Blackbird (female) |
Map of Rouge Park along with trail descriptions can be found at:
