Canada
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Ontario Parks
Toronto
Mountsberg - More than Just an Egg Hunt
4/16/2017
I'm really glad we came across Mountsberg Conservation Area located on the western edge of Greater Toronto. Although we came specifically for the Easter Egg Hunt, we quickly realized that this little park is a hidden gem offering lots of things to do especially for children. So instead of spending a few hours as per the original plan, we stayed there until the park closed for the day. Scroll down to see what this park has to offer.
I have to admit that the park was quite crowded on the Easter long weekend this year (2017). I think that nice weather and a shortage of Easter egg hunt events across the Greater Toronto Area (I was only able to find a few decent ones, and it's for a huge megapolis like GTA) contributed to it. However, our friends told us that it was way less busy than Centreville located on the Toronto Islands.
A line of cars to get to the park.
All parking lots were full, so cars had to park on grass.
There are different types and flavours of the Easter egg hunt that I have seen, and most of them involve finding artificial eggs and exchanging them for chocolate egg candies. At Mountsberg, a child was supposed to take a paper card with a number and find a wooden egg with the same number. Once done, a child would exchange it for a chocolate egg.
Wooden eggs were scattered across a small area, but sometimes it was still quite challenging to find the right number.
At times, a line to exchange a wooden egg for candy would be as long as 25-30 people. Kudos to the park's staff - they were very friendly and efficient.
"What kind of jewelry does the Eastern Bunny wear? - 14 carrot gold!"
After a dozen of iterations, a child would probably get enough candy and egg fun, so other things to do at the park would come in handy. The most interesting one is the Raptor Centre where birds of prey live. Each hour a park staff would have a presentation with some of those birds including owls, hawks and others.
Did you know that some hawks work full-time at Pearson Airport in Toronto? They managed to significantly reduce the number of collisions with aircraft (the current rate is 1 per 10,000 moves - landings and take-offs) by scaring out other birds from the runways.
The park has a small farm with cute sheep and goats as well as some rabbits and chicks. You can even pet them if you're lucky.
A real horse stable makes the park look more than just a small zoo. Not sure about horse lessons, but it looks like horses are trained and very well maintained.
What I totally didn't expect to see was a herd of bison roaming on a piece of land. Bison are the North American native cows. They recently made a comeback to Banff National Park.
Halfway through the egg hunt, I noticed that some people had a small piece of paper for what looked like a scavenger hunt.
I was right. Six stations located all over the park, six clues that had to be solved in sequence would help you reveal a password to seize a grant prize - some more candies.
But the prize didn't really matter as the real draw is the challenge that a scavenger hunt brings. Also, it's a great cause to get to know the park.
The clues were not easy to solve, and we would not have found all six stations, had we not accidentally spotted the last station in the middle of the forest where almost no people would go.
The scavenger hunt took us to a forest, meadows and wetlands, and we spotted some wildlife.
We saw a train up close.
We also realized that Mountsberg is a great place for biking even though it's not actively advertised as a biking destination and kind of stays in the shadow of its neighbouring park - Kelso Lake.
It's amazing to see how nature is waking up from the winter sleep.
Old chimney in the middle of the forest.
When we returned from the biking trip, the park was almost empty as the main activities had already wrapped up by 4 pm. The place in the pictures below is where at least 100 people were looking for wooden eggs a few hours ago. And now it's completely empty!
Even though Easter has passed, Mountsberg has lots of things to offer year-round. Check the park's website for the list of upcoming events this spring and summer.
Directions
Mountsberg Conservation Area is located near Milton, ON 70 km west of Toronto. Unless the traffic is bad, the best way to get to the park is via Highway 401, exit at Guelph Line and follow the signs. Alternatively, Highway QEW and Guelph Line can also bring you to the park.
Park's address: 2259 Marlborough Line, Campbellville, ON L0P 1B0
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