Ivan Forrest Gardens and Glen Stewart Ravine

The Ivan Forrest Gardens and the Glen Stewart Ravine are conjoined so I decided to bring them together into the same post.  Ivan Forrest is a small lovely garden that you enter from Queen Street East in the "Beaches' neighbourhood.  A perfect spot to have your quick lunch or just relax on one of the three benches at street level or a few located closer to to the fountain below.

Every spring the garden comes to life with perennials and fresh flowers newly planted. 
The newly built pedestrian bridge takes you through the Glen Stewart Ravine, an 11-hectare ravine lined with red and oak and maples.

A couple of years ago, a project was aimed to restore many areas of the ravine.  The City of Toronto along with Toronto's Conservation Authority were focusing on some major repairs which included the failing retaining walls and replacing the staircases and bridges as well as improving the trails.  The flow of the water from the slopes of Ames Creek needed to increase so a boardwalk was built as well.

Last year the $11M:11 week project was completed to reveal the success of the undertaking.  

Features included new elevated boardwalks and pedestrian bridges over the wetland to keep people of the newly planted areas.  The damaged walls were reinforced with sand bags along with newly planted grasses and herbs.  Many of the non native trees were taken down like the the Norway and Manitoba Maple and replaced with the natives species like red oak and Maple and Black Cherry.  complex ecosystem while at the same time allowing safer and heightened public access.   

Highland Creek Trail (and Colonel Danforth Park)

  The Highland Creek Trail is a paved trail that starts from Old Kingston Road and Highland Creek and ends at the shores of Lake Ontario then along the bluffs and into East Point Park.  

The trail follows through Colonel Danforth Park along Highland Creek where there is some of the most gorgeous scenery in the city.

Another hidden gem, I've never seen before and has become one of my favorite parks in the east end.  You will be amazed by the tall, aged-old cedar trees, oaks, maples and willows everywhere.  

You are never far from the Highland creek as it basically follows the trail on the right.  

The Highland creek river bed has a rocky bottom and water channel on the far side which provides a watershed for most of the central part of the city.


I would imagine Colonel Danforth park is stunning in the fall.  Incidentally, "Colonel" Danforth was named after Asa Danforth, who was an American and was commissioned by the Government of Upper Canada over 200 years ago to build a road from King Street east to the Trent river.  Asa was never a "Colonel" but he was a hard driving task master as noted by his workmen, so it is speculated, this title was given to him because of his military style of commands on his men. 


The park has the standard picnic tables with barbecues and washrooms opened in the summer.  Plenty of people come here to try their luck on casting out a line or two catching fish in the Highland creek.  Several species are native including trout, carp and bass.  Its a meandering river which like most rivers in Toronto, travel through a glacial ravine formed after the last Ice Age. 

As you leave the Colonel Danforth Park behind, you'll notice some wild fields before and some overhead 'silver-lining' pipe structures which form the mechanics of the watershed.  Finally up ahead a bridge which will take you directly south to the beaches of Lake Ontario.  

The waters shoreline is a mixture of sand and pebbles making it relatively comfortable on your toes as you wade in the waters, which I certainly did with the humidity at almost 100%.   You'll notice lots of driftwood along the shores as well.

At this point you can go east to the Port Union Trail or west through East Point Park.  That was an awesome experience, and as well a missing link from my trail list in the east.  


Nature is found all around us in any city and if you can be enjoyed by everyone so if there's no money in the bank or gas in the car, you don't need to travel far to see the same thing you'll enjoy in your own back yard if you look deep enough.