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Rouge National Urban Park Announces Improvements

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By NPT Staff - July 17th, 2023
Rouge National Urban Park has reopened Twyn Rivers Day Use Area.

Rouge National Urban Park has reopened Twyn Rivers Day Use Area/Parks Canada

The Twyn Rivers Day Use Area has reopened in Greater Toronto’s Rouge National Urban Park.

Located in Canada’s largest metropolitan area, this $2.6 million ($2 million USD) federally funded project features enhancements to visitor facilities and park infrastructure. Visitors can now enjoy:

• Significant improvements to existing trails and a new accessible trail section.

• Two new pedestrian bridges over Little Rouge Creek.

• A renewed and expanded parking area with 83 vehicle parking spaces.

• An enhanced recreation and day use area with a larger green space, gardens, solar lights and accessible furnishings (such as change tables and picnic tables).

• A year-round accessible washroom facility.

The site renewal will also guide visitors through various trails to a single crosswalk on Twyn Rivers Drive, greatly reducing the number of on-road pedestrians. In collaboration with the City of Toronto, a controlled pedestrian crosswalk light will be installed.

With input from Rouge National Urban Park First Nations Advisory Circle members, the Twyn Rivers Day Use Area parking lot has also been reoriented to create a greater natural buffer between the parking area and Little Rouge Creek. The area now features a bioswale garden, which traps toxins and prevents them from flowing into the creek. Newly planted native trees and shrubs, alongside existing mature trees, will provide shade and habitat.

To preserve the cultural heritage in the area, the below-ground foundations of the historic Rouge Valley Inn, dating back to the early 1900s, have been kept, and a portion of the inn’s former dam has been repurposed and incorporated into the design. Visitors can view the heritage structure at the base of the fencing near the creek.

Spanning 79.1 square kilometres (30 square miles), Rouge is among the largest urban parks in the world and the first national urban park in Canada. It’s home to nearly 2,000 species of plants and animals, some of the last remaining working farms in the Greater Toronto Area, and human history dating back more than 10,000 years.

Rouge is within a one-hour drive of a large proportion of Canada’s population and is accessible by public transit.

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