Sheppard's Bush Conservation Area

We recently stopped for a visit and a lunch into Aurora, Ontario which is a small suburb north of Richmond Hill.  You can eventually reach it if you continue north on Yonge Street outside of King City.


Aurora is big on its historical buildings - in fact in 2008, the town was awarded the Prince of Wales Prize for Municipal Heritage Leadership.  Again in 2009, the town received the Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Community Leadership in Heritage Conservation and promotion.



From the moment you step off the train at the old Aurora Train station (which also was built in the 1800s and still remains), you can see old houses with plaques proudly displayed under street numbers giving the dates when they were built.

After a nice lunch, we took advantage of the mild temperatures to check out a nearby conservation area.  Sheppard Bush Conversation Area has a few trail loops covering about 3 km of land that take a little over an hour to complete.  I had my running shoes on, so ended up doing a little cross country skiing instead of walking as the treads were wearing down.  It was above freezing and a great day to get around without mitts and a hat for a change.

The hardwood forest greets you as you enter the mature sugar bush and upland forest, pine plantations along the ravine and East Holland River.

The trails are hard-packed with gravel and limestone for the most part during milder temperatures (April - October) so there's no reason not to use them even in winter if you stick to the course.  It's good to note that once the park reopens, this trail connects to the Nokiidaa trail to go as far as Holland Landing, or the Oak Ridges Trail to reach Palgrave or Rice lake. 

We finished the marked paths of the Sheppard's Bush, Tim Jones and Klaus Wehrenberg trails.  It took slightly under a couple of hours to move through it though most likely much quicker without snow.

There's some spectacular sized sport fields (11 soccer fields in total) which you can gain access to through the parking lot entrance off Industrial Parkways South.

The parking lot has a 3 hr visitor parking in effect so also good to note.

Also another bonus is this trail is bike friendly - what's there not to love?