Located in Pickering, just north of Highway 407 is the Durham District School Board’s Duffins Creek Area, which is my partner Don’s favorite place to walk with Nala. If you are looking for a quiet place with beautiful walking paths, a flowing creek through the forest and possibly some pioneer buildings, then you need to check out Duffins Creek.
We normally park in the small gravel area just west of Westney Road along 7th Concession Road.
Walking in, you can either walk north along the road or a bit to the right is a dirt walking path. Some days we have one of us on the road and the other on the path, calling Nala back and forth between us, both practicing her recall and attempting to tire her out a bit!
About 500 m north of the parking lot, the road turns to the west, and a gravel path continues north along the edge of the forest. We normally head north about another 500 m, along the gravel path until another path veers a bit to the west and we follow this path through the forest.
In the summer this dirt trail is cooler, shaded by the forest canopy, and leads us down a hill to the creek where Nala loves to play. Nyx and Maze even joined us on one of our hikes this fall!
It’s here we realized we have a future dock diver, as she loved to run and leap off the end of the bridge. We find just after the first bridge, before the second bridge, is the best spot for Nala to play in the water. There is a nice flat spot that we can stand at the waters edge and toss a stick to her while she plays fetch.
Normally after 15-20 minutes of playing in the water, we continue north past the second bridge along the path through the forest. Where the trail divides again, we head west, and continue through the forest to the road.
When we reach the road, we follow it south, then east to complete the loop and meet back up with the road out towards the parking lot. From start to finish, this is about a 4 km hike.
If you are looking for a bit of variety, there are several walking paths in the middle of the loop that lead through the forest. I highly recommend keeping the AllTrails app or other hiking app on while following these trails, as they are not marked and very easy to get turned around.
So if you’re in the Durham area and looking for a quiet, well maintained, year round hiking trail, give Duffins Creek a try. It may become one of your favorite hiking trails too!
