Best Parks in Scarborough – Must-Visit Local Favourites

Scarborough is named after the resemblance of the limestones cliffs in Scarborough, England, similar to the chalk cliffs surface in Scarborough Bluffs.

Popular neighbourhoods such as L’Amoreaux, Morningside, Scarborough Bluffs, Agincourt North, West Rouge, has various sizes of parks, I’m sure you’ll be able to find one that’s perfect for a day trip. Meanwhile, we can start you off with some of our favourite parks in Scarborough.

7 of the Best Parks in Scarborough

The City of Scarborough became part of City of Toronto or Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in 1998. Scarborough’s border lies approximately within west of Victoria Park Avenue, South of Steeles Avenue, East of the Scarborough Pickering Townline and Rouge Valley, and south of Lake Ontario.

Scarborough is known for its multicultural neighbourhoods and authentic cuisines. Big green open spaces may not be the top of mind when you think of Scarborough but locals definitely take advantage of its natural landscapes, hiking and biking trails.

So far we’ve explored the parks in Vaughan, Richmond Hill, and Markham so it’s about time to dig into the best parks in Scarborough.

To start, Scarborough does have all of their trails marked on this map but it’s pretty overwhelming to look all at once which is why we’re picking out a few well-known must-visits and also hidden gems.

1 – Milliken Park

Milliken Park, also known as Milliken District Park, is an excellent neighbourhood park. It’s a versatile park with open green space, paved and forested trails that’s great for families with little ones and elders.

There are plenty of parking spots in this park’s two parking lots. Follow the wooden platform to find the viewpoint to the beautiful pond in the center of the park. This pond is thriving with wildlife in the spring, you’ll find swans, geese, ducks, fishes and maybe even some turtles.

There are many benches and gazebos scattered throughout the park where you can rest. The play structure is also fabulous and huge, there’s even a splash pad next to it. If you want a quieter playground, you can find two other smaller playgrounds, one across the pond, and through the forest trail, the second one is on the southeast end of the park. During the snowy months, there are some nice hills near the second smaller playground for tobogganing.

Milliken Park is well frequented as Milliken Park Community Recreation Centre is also situated here. Many community events, even fireworks on Canada’s Day is held here. All in all, this is a great neigbourhood park in Scarborough with many awesome features that you’d want to visit.

2 – L’Amoreaux North Park

L’Amoreaux Park is between Birchmount Rd and Kennedy Rd, spanning over the north and south side of McNicoll Ave. L’Amoreaux North Park is of course north of McNicoll Ave. This is a bit of a hidden gem when it comes to parks in Scarborough.

There are wooded trails and paved trails intertwined around the pond and stream. The bike trail is also a part of the North Scarborough Green Loop trail.

There is an off-leash dog park here. It’s relatively small and doesn’t have a separate small dog area but it’s still a good flat area for the dogs to let loose.

South of the L’Amoreaux’s North Park is the Kidstown Water Park, this water park is the only water park operated by City of Toronto. The water park set up is pretty amazing with a slide, a fountain, wading pool, splash pad and the all time favourite, a big tipping bucket! It’s operational starting mid-June to the last Sunday of Labour Day Weekend. You can hold birthday parties here if you make reservations online, there are three picnic areas and time slots to choose from. There are some decent hills for tobogganing in the winter time nearby as well.

3 – Thomson Memorial Park

The 41.8 hectare Thomson Memorial Park is to remember Scarborough’s first settlers, David and Mary Thomson when they settled on this land which was originally farm fields in 1798.

In the middle of the park among the gardens is the Scarborough Museum. It consists of four heritage buildings, showcasing village and domestic life from 1796 to 1910. Visitors can visit these buildings that houses fine art and artifacts. Donations are greatly appreciated for the museum visits.

This park has plenty of free parking, there is a washroom facility and drinking fountain right by the Scarborough Museum. The slight paved slopes makes walking and biking a breeze. The park’s facilities are a bit more scattered and covered by large matured trees.

Take your time to wander the big beautiful park and check out the splash pad, exercising machines, playground, the sport facilities, picnic shelters, and even the dog park.

The dog off-leash area is a very good size with several fenced areas for small dogs, big dogs, running dogs, quiet dogs.

Nowadays, Thomson Memorial Park hosts many summer community events and activities, one of the popular event being the Scarborough Ribfest, a free event in Toronto. With so many awesome feature, Thomson Memorial Park is an excellent Scarborough park to visit all year round.

4 – Morningside Park

Nestled in the heart of Scarborough is Morningside Park. This park is within a vibrant and diverse community with many schools and universities nearby.

With many picnic tables and charcoal bbq grills scattered throughout this park in a wide open space, this is an incredibly popular park for picnics and family gatherings. They also have 3 large fire pits which you don’t see often in Toronto neighbourhood parks.

As this is a popular park, if you’d like to reserve a spot, you can do this with the city. Take a look at the map above to see all of the circled zones that can be booked. This means that you can kick someone out of an area if you have that area reserved. Groups larger than 25 are required to have a permit.

The paved trail is excellent for jogging, cycling, and walking. Need some workout motivation? There are Benchfit signages for exercising on the benches. Follow along the creek then into the mature forest and loop back to the parking lot. If you’re lucky, you may also spot some deers on your outing.

Highland Creek runs along this park, and one of the most amazing thing is that you can see the Salmon run here! This is when the Pacific Salmon and Atlantic Salmon start migrating upstream to spawn. The best months to catch this spectacle is between September to November.

This Scarborough park is also one of the best hidden gem to see the autumn leaves.

FUN FACT: This park appears in The Incredible Hulk (2008).

5 – Bluffer’s Park and Beach

Bluffer’s Park and Beach is an oasis away from the city and when you’re here, you won’t believe that you’re still in Scarborough.

Now first thing’s first. Bluffer’s Park and Beach is not to be confused with the entire Scarborough Bluffs. There are in fact, 11 parks along the shoreline of Scarborough Bluffs. This park is also adjacent to Cathedral Bluff’s Park to the east and Scarboro Crescent Park to the west.

The easiest way to breakdown the park is in 3 sections.

You have the Bluffer’s Park which is the main part of the park where you have the rocky coastline, several outstretching peninsulas, the stormwater treatment area, and the iconic rocky cliffs that are part of a small beach. This is also where you’ll find Bluffer’s Park Lookout which is a great spot to hangout and look at the dominating cliffs that stretch 91.4m in elevation. There are also large green spaces for picnicking on this side.

This part of the park also has its own bathroom facilities and large parking lot.

Next, you have the area that you first see when you drive in which is the working Bluffers’ Park Marina. Boats are launched from here and this stretches north to include the large boats, and yacht/sailing clubs. This area has its own parking lot.

Finally, there’s the Bluffer’s Park Beach side on the most easterly end. Most people come up to this side to access the large sandy beach and the volleyball nets. Here, you’ll find its own bathroom facilities and parking lot.

The Waterfront Trail is a series of on-road and off-road trails designed for pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers that follows the Canadian shores in the Great Lakes region. This trail runs just north of Bluffer’s Park, but it’s well worth the detour to come down to the shoreline for the scenic route.

Something good to know that it’s around a 15 mins walk the marina parking lot to the beach parking lot.

There are also many picnic areas which you can book online if you want a specific BBQ area.

6 – Guild Park and Gardens

Guild Park and Gardens, formerly known as Guildwood Park, is tucked behind the Guild Inn Estate and is best known for its beautiful sculptures and location for wedding and engagement photos.

Guild Inn was built in 1914 for Colonel Harold C. Bickford, a decorated war hero. It transformed into a hub for artists when it was purchased by Rosa Breithaupt Hwewtson in 1932. She continued to purchase architectural pieces of demolished buildings to add to her collection. It was later sold to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority in 1978.

It is now an 88-acre (36 hectare) public park filled with a mix of modern and historic art sculptures and unique architectural facades. Park benches are located throughout the park where you can fully take in the environment.

While not necessarily a large park, what you’ll really appreciate as you go through the grounds is that you’re almost going through a history of Toronto’s architecture with the pieces of large facades, now-demolished historic buildings and repurposed for the public to walk through, look at, and even sit on.

The trails on the Guild Park and Garden is part of the off-road biking trail on the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail. You can see Lake Ontario from here as well. There is a trail to the actual lakefront, but unfortunately it is under construction.

Weekends tend to get busy here especially if there are weddings and events held at the banquet hall in Guild Inn Estate, the parking lot may be full. So try to come on weekdays.

FUN FACT: This park appears in The Skulls (2000).

7 – Rouge National Urban Park

Canada’s very first national urban park is right in Scarborough. Parks Canada established Rouge National Urban Park in 2015 to help protect the zone that follows much of the Rouge River and Little Rouge Creek with an important ecosystem of wetlands, forests, and agricultural lands.

It is home to over 1700 species, everywhere you look, there’s amazing biodiversity and beauty to be found.

This is in fact the largest urban park in North America, extending from Rouge Beach by Lake Ontario to Richmond Hill’s Oak Ridges Moraine. This means it overlaps the cities of Toronto, Markham, Pickering, and the Township of Uxbridge.

For visitors, the entire national park offers a wealth of hiking opportunities, Toronto’s only campground, beach at Lake Ontario, oldest known Indigenous sites, and remnants of human history dating back 10,000 years. Popular activities include hiking, bird-watching and fall photography. Winter activities include snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. 

What’s even better is that this park has many guided programs for children and adults so make sure to check out their page for calendar of events and guided walks.

You will definitely need more than one day to explore the Rouge National Urban Park. It’s easier to break this park in several exploration areas, and these are the areas that you’ll want to check out.

Rouge Beach: This section of the park features the Rouge Marsh Trail, shoreline of Lake Ontario, pedestrian boardwalk over wetlands, several watersheds and sandy beach, water access. You can canoe and kayak on the river and in the marsh. Rouge Hill GO Train Station has bicycle rentals from Bike Share Toronto, here is the recommended bike route if you want to visit the beach from the Go Train Station. (https://bikesharetoronto.com/discover-our-scarborough-pilot-area/) You may notice the curved rocky beach area, the watersheds, they were created to provide shoreline protection.

Glen Rouge Campground: The Glen Rouge Campground located in the Rouge National Urban Park is the only campground in Toronto. It’s a relatively small campground, so unfortunately you won’t get much privacy from your RV or tent camping neighbours. However, it is close proximity to the city and you can enjoy the outdoors and canoe, kayak or paddle board down the Rouge River. There are otentik cabins you can rent as well if you don’t have camping gear, those are great for families. (It’s temporarily closed for renovations on its water and sewage lines.)

Vista Trail: The north trailhead of Vista Trail is by the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre building. This is the most popular hiking trail because not far from the start is the two level wooden observation deck. In the fall, you can see the colourful leaves of the forest, with Little Rouge Creek just peeking underneath the foliage.

There are plenty of other trails to try here. The full list can be found on Parks Canada.

As we mentioned earlier, Rouge National Urban Park expands further north beyond Scarborough, towards Markham and Richmond Hill. Read up on our favourite parks in Markham, including Bob Hunter Memorial Park.

Map of Top Scarborough Parks

TIP: Open this map in a new tab (maximize icon) and click on the 3 vertical dots in the menu to “Copy map” to your own account. This way you can use the Google Maps app to open it up on your phone. You will need data to access the map.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scarborough is packed with quite a number of awesome parks that you have to check out. From the largest urban park in North America to the local favourites such as Milliken Park, there’s much to explore!