Great Canadian Urban Parks Thread

[VivaPhysicality]

Barnet Marine Park

People don't think of Burnaby as a waterfront city, but it does have the Burrard Inlet to the north. Admittedly, Burnaby could improve the way it uses its waterfront, although Barnet Marine Park is a decently nice place.


Source


Source


Burnaby Lake

Burnaby Lake is Burnaby's biggest lake, surrounded by a few hours worth of trails, although the lake itself is pretty shallow and marshy. Be on the lookout for black bears!


Source


Deer Lake

Deer Lake is like a smaller version of Burnaby Lake, but it integrates with the city a lot better, and features some nice views of the Metrotown skyline. It's also home to Burnaby City Hall, the Burnaby Art Gallery, and the Burnaby Village Museum.


Source


Source

Deer Lake occasionally hosts concerts in the summer months.


Source



Burnaby Mountain

Burnaby Mountain is probably Burnaby's most well-known park, as it is home to Simon Fraser University. Burnaby Mountain also features the Trans-Canada Trail, some great views of Downtown Vancouver and Indian Arm, and more recently, the oil pipeline protests that made national news.


Source


Source


Source

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by VivaPhysicality

Wow, that last Calgary pic is just beautiful! I go to Calgary at least once a year, and I've never seen anything like that there. I'll have to check that out next time.

There are actually Douglas Firs there too. Wasn't even aware of that until I hiked it two years ago. Boris is right, it's Calgary's least appreciated park.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Doug

More like ~17 for Nose Hill and ~12 for Fish Creek.

I'm old enough to remember Fish Creek before it was a park.

I'm 32 and have lived here my whole life. I grew up in Woodbine which is well over 20 years old now and have tons of memories of visiting Fish Creek Park as a kid. It was a park for as long as I can remember. Go back to the beach and quit pretending you live here.

[Boris2k7]

Pearce Estate Park, Calgary
Also including the reconstructed Harvey Passage


_SO81510.jpg by Orcini, on Flickr


Pearce Estate Park by John Andersen (JPAndersen images), on Flickr


In my Thoughts by John Andersen (JPAndersen images), on Flickr


PEP by LUMIN8, on Flickr


Across the Bow by Edna Winti, on Flickr


Calgary Harvie Passage White Water Channel by benlarhome, on Flickr


Day79-26 Inglewood - CPR Bridge near Pearce Estate Park photo 2 by walkcalgarycommunities, on Flickr

[SignalHillHiker]

A couple more from St. John's.

Government House Grounds

Autumn Road by Karen_Chappell, on Flickr

Chapel Hill Park

Small park on Military Road, St. John's, Newfoundland by Paul McClure DC, on Flickr

And a bit of information from the City. This excludes much of the Grand Concourse and all parks in our suburban municipalities.

The City maintains 43 parks, 3,065 hectares of open space, 124 playgrounds, 44 sports fields, and 33 basketball and tennis facilities. The City also manages 125 kilometres of walking trails and 53,000 mature trees.

The parks and sports fields are separate, and there isn't really much effort put into the sports fields to provide an urban park centre. They're quite utilitarian.





The riverside trails linking the sports fields are great and actually park-like; it'd be nice to see some of that landscaping surrounding the fields as well.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

I'm 32 and have lived here my whole life. I grew up in Woodbine which is well over 20 years old now and have tons of memories of visiting Fish Creek Park as a kid. It was a park for as long as I can remember. Go back to the beach and quit pretending you live here.

I'm 43, grew up in Canyon Meadows backing onto the park from 1975 to 1988 and had a house backing on to the park in Douglasdale from 1996 to 2001. The Elbow Drive bus loop and parking lot used to turn to the south with several acreages along it. You can see the remnants on the south side of the bike path opposite the washrooms: non-native vegetation such as caragana and swampy areas which are excavations from former foundations. Closer to Macleod is the remnant of an old mill powered by the flow of the creek. I used to built rafts and float around on the inlet built for mill. Closer to Woodbine, the chimneys from the former Mannix residence is still there as well as its former access road leading up into what is now Evergreen. There is a newer looking section of Woodbine overlooking the park that wasn't developed until the late 80s. It was the acreage of some retired country singer. I can remember people disposing garbage and old cars along the creek closer to Macleod back from when I was about 5. Before my time, but the Canyon Meadows golf course used to be the estate of one of the McMahon brothers. The club house is a much renovated and expanded version of his house. There also used to be a small cemetery in the park just east of Macleod.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Doug

I'm 43, grew up in Canyon Meadows backing onto the park from 1975 to 1988 and had a house backing on to the park in Douglasdale from 1996 to 2001. The Elbow Drive bus loop and parking lot used to turn to the south with several acreages along it. You can see the remnants on the south side of the bike path opposite the washrooms: non-native vegetation such as caragana and swampy areas which are excavations from former foundations. Closer to Macleod is the remnant of an old mill powered by the flow of the creek. I used to built rafts and float around on the inlet built for mill. Closer to Woodbine, the chimneys from the former Mannix residence is still there as well as its former access road leading up into what is now Evergreen. There is a newer looking section of Woodbine overlooking the park that wasn't developed until the late 80s. It was the acreage of some retired country singer. I can remember people disposing garbage and old cars along the creek closer to Macleod back from when I was about 5. Before my time, but the Canyon Meadows golf course used to be the estate of one of the McMahon brothers. The club house is a much renovated and expanded version of his house. There also used to be a small cemetery in the park just east of Macleod.

How old is Canyon Meadows? According to Wikipedia it was established in 1963. To the south Shawnessy was established in 1981. Midnapore itself (not the 30 year old houses) dates back at least 100 years. I was calling you out for saying Chad was wrong about development bordering fish creek for over 20 years. You said more like 12 which is completely false. Douglasdale alone is around 25 years old now. Maybe Evergreen and Bridlewood are new but the communities I listed have all been there a decent amount of time.

[Chadillaccc]

Thank O-Tac! No biggie though, I did my research before saying it, or else I wouldn't have said it



Southern Calgary from North Glenmore Park...


http://everydaytourist.ca/blog/2013/...parks-pathways

[O-tacular]

NP.

Love the giant H at Heritage Park. Pretty cool going on the Riverboat if you ever get a chance.

[Chadillaccc]

Didn't even know it existed. Looks like I have a lot of Calgary to experience this summer.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

How old is Canyon Meadows? According to Wikipedia it was established in 1963. To the south Shawnessy was established in 1981. Midnapore itself (not the 30 year old houses) dates back at least 100 years. I was calling you out for saying Chad was wrong about development bordering fish creek for over 20 years. You said more like 12 which is completely false. Douglasdale alone is around 25 years old now. Maybe Evergreen and Bridlewood are new but the communities I listed have all been there a decent amount of time.

The first subdivision houses in Canyon Meadows are from ~1970. There were a few acreage style houses before. The final areas of FC to be surrounded were the Legacy Ridge phase of Mckenzie around 1998-2000, and the far west section of Evergreen around 2003. The large church on James Mckevitt in what is now Evergreen was the only building out that way for about 15 years. The east-west portion of James McKevitt Road was originally signed as 146th Ave. The north-south was signed as 14th St. The first show homes in Douglasdale opened fall 1987. The final new houses were built in 2001. I backed right onto the park just downstream of flood destroyed driving range. I was the original owner of the house from 1995. The houses overlooking the park accessed (Ex. The all concrete house built by Jayman Homes founder Jay Westman)'off 130th are from around 1998-2001. The first subdivisions in Midnapore date to the late 70's. Prior to that there were a few small town style houses and low end motels. I can remember when Macleod south of Anderson was a single lane each way, Elbow south of Anderson was gravel and Anderson was gravel. Anderson LRT station was a drive in theatre. Southland LRT station was a sawmill.

The final portion of Nose Hill to be enclosed was off Country Hills Blvd where the last phases of Edgemont went in around 1997-1999.

[TownGuy]

Was wondering if there was a thread like this, so this is a bump.

This is Rouge National Urban Park which is located in the GTA (primarily Toronto). As much as this was discussed at the start of the thread, no one actually posted photos. Much of this park borders the Greenbelt that Doug Ford is trying to have developed. You can see why that is ruffled so many feathers in Ontario.

[J.OT13]

Rouge and the concept of "Urban National Parks" was established in 2015. Is it the only one? Have the Feds discussed adding any new ones?

Seems Stanley Park would be an excellent candidate. Gatineau Park would be another (some have been pushing to make it a National Park since its inception). I'm sure most other major cities have a large, naturalized park that could be added.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

How old is Canyon Meadows? According to Wikipedia it was established in 1963. To the south Shawnessy was established in 1981. Midnapore itself (not the 30 year old houses) dates back at least 100 years. I was calling you out for saying Chad was wrong about development bordering fish creek for over 20 years. You said more like 12 which is completely false. Douglasdale alone is around 25 years old now. Maybe Evergreen and Bridlewood are new but the communities I listed have all been there a decent amount of time.

Parts of Evergreen are more than 30 years old. My family moved to Evergreen in 1995, and we were not the first to own the house we moved into. The whole area we lived in was reasonably well established, including housing backing directly onto Fish Creek park.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Rouge and the concept of "Urban National Parks" was established in 2015. Is it the only one? Have the Feds discussed adding any new ones?

Seems Stanley Park would be an excellent candidate. Gatineau Park would be another (some have been pushing to make it a National Park since its inception). I'm sure most other major cities have a large, naturalized park that could be added.

They are currently in the process of creating one in Windsor, the Ojibway National Urban Park. It’s planning has been going on for a couple of years now, hopefully it will become reality by next year.

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...-ahead-of-vote

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Rouge and the concept of "Urban National Parks" was established in 2015. Is it the only one? Have the Feds discussed adding any new ones?

Seems Stanley Park would be an excellent candidate. Gatineau Park would be another (some have been pushing to make it a National Park since its inception). I'm sure most other major cities have a large, naturalized park that could be added.

From the Parks Canada site...

Active national urban park candidate sites
Parks Canada is currently working with partners in six urban areas to explore the potential for a national urban park.

More information from local partners:

Edmonton region, Alberta
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Saskatoon region, Saskatchewan
Victoria (greater area), British Columbia (coming soon)
Windsor, Ontario
Winnipeg, Manitoba (coming soon)

Parks Canada is also engaged in exploratory conversations about a potential national urban park in Montreal, Quebec.

Also...

Future candidate sites
The December 2021 Minister’s Mandate Letter included a commitment to expand the program to 15 national urban parks. Parks Canada will create a process to identify the additional candidate sites in the coming months.

[J.OT13]

Thanks. Hope these go through.

[harls]

TownGuy with the near 8 year old thread bump. I thought I was bad

[TownGuy]

Straight outta the archives!

[Maldive]

^ Great shots of the Rouge @TownGuy.

Since the thread has been resuscitated… Toronto’s downtown waterfront jewel, The Islands (from about 3/4 years ago - no Sugar Wharf towers on the skyline ;-).




Hanlan's Point clothing-optional beach









^ All screenshots from a video called ‘Toronto Islands Drone Footage 4K’ - link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro6vgn6bhDU