High Park

High Park covers about a hundred and sixty-one hectares and came to the city in 1873 from John Howard, on condition it stay free and public. About a third of it is black oak savannah, an ecosystem now rare in Ontario, with grasses and wildflowers under widely spaced oaks; the city runs prescribed burns each spring to maintain it, since the savannah depends on fire to suppress invading shrubs. Around forty Somei-Yoshino cherry trees were given by Japan in 1959, and their bloom in late April or early May draws crowds so heavy the park closes to cars and sometimes entirely.

What you actually see

• The black oak savannah - a rare fire-dependent ecosystem inside a city.
• The cherry blossom - Japanese trees given in 1959, blooming for about a week.
• The prescribed burns - deliberate spring fires maintaining the savannah.
• Grenadier Pond - a large pond with herons and winter skating.

When to go

Late April or early May for cherry blossom, a window of roughly a week that shifts each year and is tracked by a bloom watch. April to October otherwise. Burns happen on short notice in spring.

Honest expectations

Cherry blossom week brings crowds so large the park restricts access, and in some years it has been closed entirely during peak bloom. The window is short and unpredictable.

Nearby

Downtown Toronto lies east; the Scarborough Bluffs are far east.