No Snow

As I work my way through “The 111 Places in Toronto That You Must Not Miss”, I am finding that many of the suggestions really would be nicer to visit in warmer summer weather. I will admit to pushing some of my walks a bit; I did go to see Woodbine Beach which is renowned for it’s impressive volleyball facilities, only I went on a February day to see “Winter Stations”, so I have decided to slow down and save some of the attractions for the nicer weather. 

One of the suggestion is “Christie Pits Tobogganing”, so at least that is a “Winter” activity . . . only problem is that winter never really happened here in Toronto; any snow that fell usually melted the next day, so there was not a lot of Tobogganing happening this winter. So today, we decided to go see this “Place not to be missed” even if it was not to slide down snow covered hills. 

The park is situated on the site of the Christie Sand Pit which was excavated for the sand, gravel and clay found there. It was named for the street it is on, Christie St., which is actually named after the famous “Mr. Christie” of cookie fame. As the sand, gravel and clay was removed, the pit was formed and once it was no longer useful it was turned into a park. Because it is a pit with steep slopes on all sides it has become a popular area to toboggan in winters when Toronto actually gets some winter snow. 

Christie Pits Park

Christie Pits Park is called “a city within a park”, and although this park in the western end of downtown Toronto is only one block square, it really does pack a lot into a small area. The park now contains a full sized regulation baseball diamond and several smaller softball fields. There is a swimming pool complex with water slides and a regulation sized outdoor hockey rink with artificial ice (VERY useful this winter). The park also has a skateboard park, a labyrinth, a picnic area, a playground for little people, basketball courts, and an outdoor wood fired oven. There are trails through the park  to get you to all the handy facilities and lots of comfortable benches. 

The Labyrinth used to be a fountain

We headed out to the park via Subway line two and arrived at the Christie station right beside the park. We walked all the way around the park and then took one of the pathways down into the “pit“ where we wandered around the many pathways and even found our way through the Labyrinth to the very centre. On a cloudy foggy Sunday, the park was well used and it was nice to see the public washrooms were open rather than the usual “Closed for the season” signs we often see in the winter.

Our visit to the park was a pleasant way to pass the day, and we were impressed with the facility; it really is a nice community park and the neighbourhood must be pleased to have a park so well equipped to enjoy even if there was little tobogganing this year.