A beautiful short hike in Toronto’s east end – from Kingston Road south to Queen Street east in the Beaches through a deep ravine along new elevated boardwalks, and Tomlin’s Creek ending at Ivan Forrest Gardens. Stopping for ice cream at the south end is optional, but recommended!
Map of the hike – from 1912
The City of Toronto Archives have the following map that was prepared in 1912 by the Provident Investment Company and it serves us well today, with Kingston Road in the north at the top, down to Queen Street East at the bottom:
If you are interested in the history of the area we have a web page of historic photos from the Glen Stewart Park and Ravine, including one from 1894 when it was known as the Witches Park (there is rare witch hazel shrubs in the ravine, apparently).
Parking lots and washrooms along the Glen Stewart Ravine
There are no parking lots along the hike, but lots of street parking on Kingston Road or on Queen Street East. There are also no public washrooms.
Start of the hike – south from Kingston Road
We decided to park on Kingston Road and walk south down to Queen Street East, then traced our steps back north to the car. The north entrance is a wide, narrow stretch of grass along the south side of the street just east of the house at 771 Kingston Road. Look for the top of the wooden stairs going down multiple flights through the trees to the ravine floor. It is clear that this is a hike, and not a bike ride!
At the bottom of the stairs continue straight ahead, after exploring the path that heads east towards Beech Ave if you’d like. Sections of the path are sandy, and in other sections there are elevated boardwalks. Please stick to the official trail, as it is an environmentally sensitive area.
At times the path follows along Tomlin’s Creek.
While we are walking pretty much due south, there is a set of steps midway through the ravine heading east (on our left) to a side path that goes up to a nice entrance to the park near 144 Balsam Avenue.
The ravine continues though the trees and along the creek.
Transition to city park
About half way through the walk we cross Glen Manor Drive East, where we turn to the left a bit, and continue south. The deep, wooded ravine is replaced with city parks.
Continue south, under the Glen Manor pedestrian bridge that connects Williamson Road and Pine Glen Road and eventually to Pine Crescent.
Ivan Forrest Gardens
The southern-most part of of hike is through Ivan Forrest Gardens. The official address is 131 Glen Manor Drive. If you look at the historic images from this area you’ll find an excellent photo from the 1920’s when this area was flooded and was a small lake or pond.
Southern end of the hike at Queen Street East
The ravine, park, and our hike, ends at Queen Street East in the Beaches, just west of 2150 Queen Street East. As I said, we continued on for ice cream before retracing our steps, but that is up to you.
