Safety first
Swim at own risk. Rock hazards and other debris. Watch your head. Never swim or paddle alone. Always wear a towfloat safety visibility buoy so you can be seen by boats and jetskis. Know your limit and stay "withinit".
The "Bigs" blocked off pedestrian access to the beach so we're swimming and paddling and dragonboarding at the Swimdock and Swimpier as shown in this new location as indicated in the map below:
Pedestrian access to Micheal Hough Beach by way of West Island is now closed off so you need to swim or paddle there. We usually enter a indicated above, and swim or paddle elsewhere from there.
We enter the water at Trillium Park Swimdock next to the 3 unisex heated washrooms/changerooms that are open year-round, and then paddle around the island, etc..:
TeachBeach outdoor classroom at Michael Hough Beach, Ontario Place, West Island
The TeachBeach™ outdoor classroom we built at Ontario Place:
Downtown Toronto's only beach, 43.627506, -79.421038
43.627506, -79.421038
Closures due to maintenance work: follow the green route on left side of map:
Parking spots for disability, or if arriving by vehicle, ask driver to drop you off at top of wheelchair ramp, at top of Remembrance Drive:
Follow the directions indicating "WEST ISLAND ACCESS":
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| Directions to get there during construction, and also alternate swim location if gate over water is locked |
Location from Go train stop "Exhibition Place":
We've also created a Facebook page called "SwimOP = Swim at Ontario Place":
Historical perspective:
Many years ago, there were plans for 4 beaches at Ontario Place:
Parking
Closer parking lot (closest to TeachBeach):
When plan "A" fails, i.e. when all of the pedestrian, bike, and wheelchair access to the beach is blocked, we either take boards (paddleboards) to the beach, plan "B", or we do a Channel swim, plan "C", which is marked of in 100m increments (approx. 700m swim) as below:
