Don North Trail (Edwards Gardens)

Edwards Gardens / greenhouses

surrounding gardens

upper level of the gardens

The furthest northwest point of this particular part of the trail you will enter the beautiful botanical gardens (a former estate) called Edwards Gardens.    As you can see its easy to be a great photographer here!  This was site of another saw mills once owned by Rupert Edwards and in 1944 he made  this site his country home. Unbelievably, I had read that there was a time when this land was actually neglected!  But thankfully the city of Toronto had bought the land in the mid 50s, and Edwards Gardens was born.  Today the botanical gardens are in full bloom in the spring and summer months.  There is a fully functioning garden as well that is used to grow fresh fruits and vegetables which are donated to the homeless shelters.   My favorites will always be the weeping willow trees and there were quite a few here.  Awesome and beautiful shade trees they are ornaments to any garden in my opinion and there is no other tree quite so lovely. 

The weeping willow

functioning garden 

This pretty much covers the bike trails in and around Toronto.  There are plenty of foot trails that are easier to access without a bike too, but I won't be covering them on the blog.  There are plenty of great sites around already that cover hiking trails in Ontario :)

Don North Trail (Wilket Creek)

Following northwest on the trail you will come to a junction which acts as a meeting place, a rest station or terminus to Sunnybrook Park, Wilket Creek or Edwards Gardens.  Wilket Creek park is surrounded by mature oak and maple trees, sloping trails and ravines.  The creek is surrounded by ferns and cattails. A peaceful and beautiful portion of the trail.

Another popular parks for meet ups and family picnics.  The Terry Fox run usually starts at Wilket Creek.  The park itself is accessible from Leslie Street north of Eglinton Avenue.  This portion of parkland will eventually merge into the famous Edwards Gardens.