For a list of trails in the watershed click here: TRAILS

Confluence with the Humber river

The last section of the Black Creek, from Scarlett Road to the Humber river flows through the private Lambton Golf course (established in the 1890s).

The confluence can be seen from the west side of the Humber from where James Gardens and Lambton Woods meet.

Smythe Park

From Scarlett Road to Jane street on both sides of the creek.

Can be reached from the Humber trail:
where the trail crosses Scarlett Road, turn south and follow Scarlett Road across the Humber bridge, through one traffic light and part way up the hill is the entrance to the park. The roadway leads to the eastern end of the park to a parking lot serving the olympic sized outdoor swimming pool and children's playground. There are dirt and paved bike trails in the eastern end of the park.

Smythe Park Wetlands:
The Black Creek watershed is almost entirely urbanized, and no natural wetlands exist within the watershed, however there are several human-made ponds and wetlands in the park fed by the drainage from the gravel bar on the south slope of the valley. The wetlands created habitat for Blue Herons, Kingfishers, Muskrats, and in 1992, a beaver.



The remnant of the Beaver lodge still stands on an island in one of the ponds. The Beaver actually caused quite a bit of damage to the trees in the park, and was forcibly evicted.

Beavers returned a few years later and by the fall of 2009 there were
5 beavers in the park, causing extensive damage. Sometimes in the spring of 2011 the beavers left Smythe Park and now only abandoned beaver lodges can be seen.





Smythe Park was the winner of a quarry restoration award - awarded by the Aggregate Producers Association of Ontario: Bronze Plaque Award - for outstanding examples of state of the art pit or quarry rehabilitation.


If you follow the bike path uphill towards the SE you will reach Haney Parkette at the corner of Jane St. and Haney Ave. Cross Jane street to the West and you will enter:

Black Creek Parklands West

From Jane street to Rockcliffe Blvd. on both sides of the creek.

The paved bike path meanders among trees and bushes down the hill toward the creek and Rockcliffe school. You will pass by hundreds of young trees planted by the students of the middle school with the guidance of our co-ordinator.
Along the trail you will also see bird houses installed by the students of Rockcliffe School.


When you reach Rockcliffe Blwd. go North to cross the bridge over Black Creek and across the road to enter:

Black Creek Parklands East

From Rockcliffe Blvd. to Alliance Ave & Cliff St. on the North side of the creek.

The wood chip trail through this park was built by Archbishop Romero students and the BCCP. Along the way you will see hundreds of trees planted against the fence of the industrial area lining Alliance avenue. Also 2 wildflower gardens were created here several years ago.

Students from the woodshop classes of Archbishop Romero C.S.S. have been building and supplying small birdhouses to the BCCP for several years. Amongst the trees many bird houses were installed by fellow students, providing nesting sites to a variety of birds.




Students from the woodshop classes of Archbishop Romero C.S.S. have been building and supplying small birdhouses to the BCCP for several years.


In the spring of 2009 Tree Swallows were found nesting in some bird boxes installed the previous year by Archbishop Students.


Funds and Materials for this project were provided through grants from Environment Canada's EcoAction Program.




In the spring of 2011 the birdhouses were cleaned and fixed as required. We found old nests in some.






East of Alliance Ave & Cliff St. the creek is squeezed into a vertical channel to Weston Road. From Weston Road it comtinues East goes under the railway bridges and turns North on the East side of Black Creek Drive up to Eglinton Ave.


From here to Trethewey Drive (which is North of Eglinton) there are no park lands for walking.
South of Eglinton on the West side of the creek is the future home of the York Community Centre, slated to open in the spring of 2017.
On the East of the creek is Keelsdale Park. Currently (2012 February)the new Eglinton subway construction is underway here and the park is occupied by construction equipment.



North of Eglinton there is Coronation Park on the East bank and Keelsdale North sport fields on the West bank.