Blythwood Ravine Under Mount Pleasant Road

The Blythwood and Sherwood ravine system runs through Lawrence Park, and its trail passes under the Mount Pleasant Road bridge at the system’s deepest point. The underpass is the threshold: road overhead, ravine walls on either side, the path continuing through compressed space. Burke Brook runs through the system, parts of it constrained by urban drainage infrastructure. For a short distance the ravine and the road occupy the same vertical column, the city folded over itself. The ravine is quieter than the trails closer to the core, and the underpass feels more infrastructural than scenic, which is exactly why it belongs in this guide.

Context

Burke Brook flows through the Blythwood and Sherwood ravines as part of the Don River watershed. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s Walk the Don series traces the creek through Lawrence Park and Sherwood Park and notes the channelized condition of parts of the watercourse.