Ray Lowes Side Trail
Once in the Arboretum, take the right hand laneway up the hill to Rasberry House. Leave one car near the old stone silo at the parking lot by Rasberry House, and use the other car to take the hikers to the parking area at Valley Road. To get there, turn left on to Old Guelph Road from the Arboretum, and at York Road (not to be confused with York Boulevard), turn left.
Turn right at Valley Road and go up hill to a small parking area at the west side of the road. Description of Hike: From the parking area on Valley Road, take the main Bruce Trail (white blazes) on the west side of the road down into the forest, roughly half a kilometre to the intersection with the Ray Lowes Side Trail. Turn left and follow the Ray Lowes Side Trail down the valley of Hopkin’s Creek. The Trail emerges at York Road, follows it south for about 1 km, and then crosses the road and turns onto the grounds of the Royal Botanical Gardens. In this next section there are several RBG trails, part of the Cootes Paradise North Shore Trail System. Take care to follow the blue blazes. Near the end of the side trail you will reach the old silo at the parking lot at Rasberry House.
You can purchase maps, books and other products from the Bruce Trail General Store, open from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. The side trail is named after Ray Lowes, the Founder of the Bruce Trail. Ray’s concern for conservation of the Niagara Escarpment in 1960 lead him to the idea of providing a public footpath on Escarpment so that people would explore it and see the need to conserve it. From his original idea, the Bruce Trail Association and its member Clubs now develop and manage more than 1,200 kilometres of main Trail and side trails, and are active in preserving and stewarding thousands of hectares of land along the Escarpment.
With file information from the Bruce Trail, for more information on this and other Bruce trails please purchase the Bruce Trail map and trail guidebook. The Bruce Trail is the oldest and longest marked hiking trail in Canada. It is 840 km long, with over 440 km of side trails. Every year more than 400,000 visits are made to the Trail as people walk, snowshoe, watch wildlife, take photographs and admire the glorious scenery of the Escarpment.
The Bruce Trail was instrumental in the Escarpment being named a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1990 - one of only twelve such reserves in all of Canada. The Bruce Trail is a member of the Ontario Trails Council through affiliation with Hike Ontario.
Ray Lowes Side Trail - Bruce Trail
Know somebody who might be interested in this trail? Share it with them!
REVIEW
Have you traveled this trail? If you have any corrections or new information you'd like to send us, we'd love your input. Also, any photos or videos you may have taken of your adventures on this or any other trail are welcome as well. Be a part of our trail community!
At the Ontario Trails Council, we do our best to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information we provide on the site. Please remember however, that some of the information you'll find here has been provided by third parties; we can't take responsibility for that information or make any guarantees as to its quality or accuracy. It's also important to remember that while something you read here may have been correct at the time it was posted, Seasons change and the trails change with them! Contact the trail manager or local weather office when planning a trip to avoid surprises, like poor conditions or trail closures.
Please note that when you send us images, you give us the right to use them as we see fit, without limitation or compensation, to promote the Ontario Trails Council.
This site is supported by a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion Active 2010 Recreation Program, The Ministry of Natural Resources, The Ontario Trillium Foundation and trail users like you!
