Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington, Ontario, Day Hike

• Posted on July 24, 2007 at 8:00 PM
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On the trail with Celeste and Alexandra

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On Sunday we drove to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario (website http://www.rbg.ca/) to see the sights and check out some subsidiary hiking trails that link up with the main Bruce Trail. Traffic from downtown Toronto to Burlington was unusually heavy for a summer Sunday afternoon, but we arrived in decent time after a couple of slowdowns near Ford Drive in Oakville.

We took the Gardiner to the Q.E.W. to the Hwy. 403 turnoff near Burlington. We turned North on Hwy.6 and then took the first right on Plains Road West to the Main Centre of the RBG at 680 Plains Road, passing by Laking Gardens and Hendrie Park in the process. If you have never been to the RBG before, don't get fooled by turning into the Laking Gardens or Hendrie Park parking lots...the Main Centre is just a little further along on the south side of Plains Road West.

Once we had arrived, we meet up with some friends, watered up, and then loaded the kids into the Snuglis and our MEC kid carrier. We checked out the main Centre, which is replete with informative staff, literature, various facilities and a cafe. We paid our admission ($8 for adults, children under 5 free) and proceeded to investigate Hendrie Park which is accessible from the Main Centre.

We were immediately impressed. RBG is apparently the largest botanical gardens in all of Canada, and the importance of the Gardens was immediately apparent. We wandered through Hendrie Park, a beatifully landscaped collection of gardens teeming with various plant species: roses, shrubs, herbs, flowering plants, lilies, vines, and other climbers. The roses were out of bloom although one can only imagine the spectacle (and perfume) when the collection is in full bloom.

We proceed to the rear of the garden where a path leads down into the forested Hendrie Valley Sanctuary. This was for us the highlight, as we were able to combine some light day hiking through dense forest with an education in forest flora and fauna, including a few pleasant surprises.

The path descended fairly quickly to the valley floor, passing along the way a number of interesting plant species, including some non-native oak, hickory and magnolia tree species, as well as hostas and other common plants that were planted by the RBG's forest landscapers. Informative plaques were installed along the way, providing interesting insight into the particularities of forest plant life. We continued down the trail to a fence which separates the Sanctuary from the lower valley. We passed through an opening in the fence into dense deciduous forest. We were immediately accosted by squirrels, chipmunks and an inquisitive brilliant red Cardinal who had obviously become accustomed to the odd handout of a crust of bread from the trail users. My three year old daughter was delighted, and was even more impressed by a garter snake which was sunning itself in the nook of a tree stump. That maintained her rapt attention for several long minutes, until the neighbourhood chickadees came out to investigate. These were so comfortable around humans that we could almost feed them by hand.

The trail continued down to a boardwalk across a lily marsh where we observed several kingfishers and red-winged blackbirds. The path continued up a steep incline around to the back end of the marsh where some a wood duck and her chicks were splashing around. All three of my daughters were enjoying themselves tremendously at all of the new sights, sounds and smells. We passed a Sycamore tree, with its rolling sheaves of bark littering its base, and my oldest daughter took great joy in order me (from her vantage in the child carrier) to pick up the largest pieces and to hand them to her.

Eventually we made our way back to the Main Centre, but not before spending 20 minutes trying to catch green frogs at the edge of one of the marshes, picking up a reddish green garter snake to show the children, and studying various types of plants and trees along the way.

Our day at the RBG was very rewarding and an ideal way to combine a light hike suitable for small children with an education in botany and horticulture. There are more than 30 kms of hiking available on the RBG grounds, and we will certainly return to visit the other areas including the Rock Garden, Rock Chapel, Laking Garden, Cootes Paradise Sanctuary, and world famous Arboretum.

As a passing note, we were told by the clerk in the RBG Main Centre that the RBG is the world registry for lilacs!!!

To cap off the day, we drove into Burlington for beer and gourmet pizza on the patio at Spencer's overlooking Lake Ontario.