Don Valley Ravines: Beltline to the Brick Works and Down the Don

Toronto is a city built on top of a ravine system, and this walk is the best single day inside it. You leave the subway in midtown, step onto an old railway line, and within twenty minutes you are following a creek through a forest with the city somewhere above you. By lunch you are at the Brick Works, the old quarry and brick factory that supplied the bricks for Casa Loma, Massey Hall and the Ontario Legislature, now a public park and community centre. The afternoon runs down the Don River itself, under the great Bloor Street viaduct, to a hilltop with one of the best skyline views in the city.

The route follows the Beltline Trail, laid on the bed of a commuter railway that ran for only two years after it opened in 1892, then the Moore Park Ravine along Mud Creek, which reaches the Don Valley at the Brick Works. From there a switchback path climbs to Chorley Park, where the lieutenant governor’s mansion stood until 1961. The last leg is the Lower Don Trail, a paved path along the river, to Riverdale Park and the Danforth.

It is about 11 kilometres and mostly downhill, since you start high on the plateau and finish near river level, with two short climbs.

Getting there. Take Line 1 to Davisville station and walk a block south to the Beltline bridge over Yonge Street. The walk ends at Broadview station on Line 2. Evergreen’s free shuttle between Broadview station and the Brick Works lets you shorten it.

Permits & fees. None. The trails, the Quarry Garden and the Brick Works grounds are free; parking at the Brick Works is limited and paid.

Good to know:

The Evergreen Brick Works farmers’ market runs on Saturday mornings; check current hours and events on Evergreen’s site.
The Lower Don Trail floods and closes after heavy rain; check City of Toronto notices.
The trails are shared with cyclists, especially the Lower Don.
There is no food or water between Davisville and the Brick Works, or between the Brick Works and the Danforth.

Day 1

Davisville to Broadview through the ravines

Davisville station → Broadview station 11.8 km 85 m

Navigate this day Print day

The Beltline east, Moore Park Ravine down to the Brick Works, a climb to Chorley Park and back, then the Lower Don Trail and Riverdale Park East.

Segments

The Beltline 1.8 km 5 m Map

Davisville station → Mount Pleasant Road

Crushed-gravel rail trail

Walk south from the station to the Beltline bridge over Yonge Street and the subway yard, then east along Kay Gardner Beltline Park, a tree-lined path on the bed of the Toronto Belt Line Railway, a commuter line opened in 1892 that failed within two years. Signs mark where its stations stood. The path runs past Mount Pleasant Cemetery to Mount Pleasant Road. About 25 minutes.

About this place

The Beltline Trail is a 9-kilometre (5.6 mi)-long cycling and walking rail trail in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It consists of three sections, the York Beltline Trail west of Allen Road, the Kay Gardner Beltline Park from the Allen to Mount Pleasant Road, and the Ravine Beltline Trail south of Mount Pleasant Cemetery through the Moore Park Ravine. Built on the former right-of-way of the Toronto Belt Line Railway, the linear park passes through the neighbourhoods of Rosedale, Moore Park, Forest Hill, Chaplin Estates, and Fairbank.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Dillan Payne · CC BY-SA 4.0
Moore Park Ravine 3 km 0 m Map

Mount Pleasant Road → Evergreen Brick Works

Packed-earth and gravel ravine trail, gently downhill

The Beltline turns south into the Moore Park Ravine and follows Mud Creek, a Don River tributary that runs mostly underground and surfaces here, under a canopy of oak, maple and beech. The noise of the city drops away within minutes; the ravine walls and a few high bridges are the only reminders of where you are. The trail ends at Bayview Avenue beside the Brick Works. About 45 minutes.

About this place

Mud Creek is a mostly buried south-easterly tributary of the Don River in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has also been known at different times as Mount Pleasant Brook and Spring Valley Creek.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Sikander Iqbal · CC BY-SA 4.0
Evergreen Brick Works and the Quarry Garden 1 km 0 m Map

Brick Works entrance → Back of the Weston Family Quarry Garden

Paved yards and flat garden paths

The Don Valley Brick Works opened in 1889 and at its peak turned out millions of bricks a year for the city. Since 2010 the restored kiln halls have housed Evergreen's community centre, a café and, on Saturday mornings, a farmers' market. Behind them the old quarry is now the Weston Family Quarry Garden, three ponds among meadow and young forest, and its north wall exposes layers of sediment from several ice ages, a protected geological site. About 1 hour with lunch.
The Chorley Park switchbacks 1.2 km 35 m Map

Brick Works → Chorley Park and back

Switchback gravel path, climbing

A switchback trail opened in 2018 climbs the valley wall to Chorley Park, where Ontario's lieutenant governors lived in a French Renaissance-style mansion from 1915 until the 1930s. The city bought it in 1960 and tore it down in 1961; only the old forecourt bridge and faint outlines in the grass remain. Look back over the treetops of the Don Valley, then return the same way. About 30 minutes.

About this place

Government House was the official residence of the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada and Ontario, Canada. Four buildings were used for this purpose, none of which exist today, making Ontario one of four provinces not to have an official vice-regal residence.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
The Lower Don Trail 3.5 km 0 m Map

Brick Works → Riverdale footbridge

Paved multi-use riverside path

Walk a few minutes south along Bayview to Pottery Road, where the brick chimney of Todmorden Mills stands across the river, and drop onto the Lower Don Trail. Follow the river south past a line of cast-concrete sculptures by Duane Linklater and under the Prince Edward Viaduct, the Bloor Street bridge begun in 1915, to the footbridge at Riverdale Park. About 50 minutes.

About this place

The Don River is a watercourse in Ontario, Canada, that empties into Lake Ontario, at Toronto Harbour. Its mouth was just east of the street grid of the town of York, Upper Canada, the municipality that evolved into Toronto, Ontario. The Don is one of the major watercourses draining Toronto that have headwaters in the Oak Ridges Moraine.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Reval416 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Riverdale Park East to the Danforth 1.3 km 45 m Map

Riverdale footbridge → Broadview station

Footbridge, grassy hill, then sidewalk

Cross the river on the footbridge and climb the long lawn of Riverdale Park East. From the top the whole downtown skyline lines up across the valley, and at sunset half the neighbourhood is up here to watch. Walk north along Broadview Avenue to the Danforth and Broadview station. About 25 minutes.

About this place

Riverdale Park is a large park spanning the Lower Don River in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, between Cabbagetown to the west and Broadview Avenue in Riverdale to the east.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Dillan Payne · CC BY-SA 4.0