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Waterloo West Side Trails: Forested Hills

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Notice the pink paint on one of the rocks near the bottom of the picture marking the trail

A view of the trees from the path

At the west side of Waterloo, there is a forest that has a number of walking trails through it. The map here marks the location of one of the entrances to these trails. There are additional entrances scattered around the borders of the forest. There is another entrance just south of Red Osien Road, and another two entrances off the park at the corner of Blue Beech Blvd. and Wild Birch Ave. (also in the northwest corner of Waterloo).

The trails themselves are nice and scenic. Parts of the trails are on paths that are visibly marked with pink paint. Other trails are less obviously marked. Parts of the trails involve steep ascents and descents, which can be slippery and muddy if it has rained recently.

Inside the forest, there is no "main trail". Instead, each path often splits up into multiple paths which loop back and join each other at different points later in the forest. Some parts of the forest border on farmers fields, or in this strange fenced off area that promises "future development". (It's strange that they're saying a future development will take place there - the rest of the forest has signs that say "Environmentally sensitive area - stay on path").

Estimated Visiting Time

Fenced Off Area

The area is quite large, but not huge. You could easily spend an hour or two walking through the many paths.