Stormy Weather in Rouge Park

Sometimes you just have to go with the flow, and while hiking Rouge Urban National Park, that meant embracing the storm. When we left Ottawa on May 4th, I had planned two options to visit Rouge Park. If the weather was cooperating, we would explore the park as soon as we arrived on Friday afternoon but if it rained we would visit early Saturday morning. Although it rained most of the drive from Ottawa, by the time we reached the outskirts of Toronto the sun was shining. We made our way to the Parks Canada Welcome area which is located off the Toronto Zoo parking lot.

Unfortunately, because the Welcome Center was closed we couldn’t pick up a map of the hiking trails. I don’t like the idea of hiking without a map (getting lost in Mauricie Park is still fresh in my mind!) but the marker for the Vista trail was right there. So off we went, me, my husband, Michel, my son Ben, my brother Jean and his two boys, Alexandre and Mathieu. Here are the three boys enjoying the hike.

The best way to describe Rouge Park is “a spot of wilderness in the city”. It was nice to be back into a nature setting but Toronto was never far as we could see the roofs of neighbouring homes and hear the roar of the highway in the background. I support the establishment of a park within 20% of the Canadian population but personally, I prefer my parks to be wilder and more remote.

Within an hour of our hike, the sky darkened and thunder could be heard in the distance. Although we immediately turned around, we were still 1.6 km from our cars when the storm hit. There was nothing to do but enjoy the rain and laugh it off as a fun adventure. Oh, by the way, in our rush to return to our cars, we did take a wrong turn somewhere and lost our way. Fortunately, being so close to the city, we accessed a park map online and quickly found our way back.

A memorable wet visit in The Rouge Urban Park!