City parks, Winnipeg

This is a great park in the midst of the city - a perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city (though it can be pretty busy too in the summer!). The park is over 378 acres (153 hectares). In addition to numerous walking & biking trails, lawns, picnic areas, and soccer fields, the park is home to a zoo, an English garden, a sculpture garden, a conservatory, an outdoor theatre, and a gallery museum.

Assiniboine Forest is adjacent to Assiniboine Park. It's a natural oasis in the heart of the city, 700 acres worth! There is a looped 1.5 km paved trail (Sigimay Trail) that leads to the Eve Werier Memorial Pond - good for walking and biking. Another 8.5 km of woodchip trails extend from the Sagimay Trail at various locations - good for walking.

There are several entrance points, but the entrance listed below has parking.

This zoo (located in Assiniboine Park) is on the smallish size, but it's reasonably priced and has a nice representation of local and northern species (with some exotics as well). Check out their albino bison! A few hours should be enough to get through it all.

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Ron toured me through here once or twice during my stopovers in Winnipeg...its a beautifuly designed piece of land that illustrates what planst can grow easily in the climate of Manitoba.

The English Gardens is a section of Assiniboine Park located centrally in Winnipeg.

Assiniboine Park was created in 1904 and encompasses about eleven hundred acres of manicured lawns,picnic areas,Winnipeg Zoo,many miles of trails and sidewalks used for jogigng and walking.

"The winding paths and free-form beds of the English Garden are indicative of the English Landscape Style which was meant to convey an idealized but approachable view of nature, as opposed to the regimented symmetry of the Formal Garden."

The English Garden in Assiniboine Park is now planted mainly with annual flowers but a program is underway to revitalize this historic garden to restore it and its original design intent

A very relaxing place, away from the buzz of downtown - yes, a place in Winnipeg you can breathe!

We had lunch next to lake, and then we visited the zoo. It isn't that impressive a zoo but it was still fun and in the zoo is a statue of the original Winnie the Pooh!

Almost every year the Zoo seems to do something special and bring in an exotic animal from some far part of the world. Usually the most excitement happens in the summer, May until the end of August.

However, the Zoo is open 365 days a year. If you are planning to visit outside of the summer, call the Zoo office first and find out what animals are expected to be available for viewing.

Admission is $4.25CDN per person or $15.00 per family.

Also it's great fun to visit the Zoo in January when it's -40 degrees and the polar bears are complaining about the heat!

Winnipeg has a lot of parks and green space - trees on most streets (for that matter, decades old elm trees on most streets)

A visit to Winnipeg should include a visit to one of the parks - Assiniboine, Beaudry, Bonnycastle, Crescent Drive, Kildonan, Kings, La Barriere, Little Mountain, St. Vital, etc. etc. Assiniboine Park (see pic) has the English Garden, Leo Mol statues, duck ponds, indoor flower conservatory, an outdoor stage, miles of bike paths, the city zoo, a pavillion with art exhibits and a garden restaurant, etc. etc.

Just a plug for the zoo -- It is a mid-range zoo - not as extensive as the Calgary Zoo, but better than a lot of zoos. The Assiniboine Zoo has major breeding programs going on for a number of species. Of course, they do a good job of displaying animals native to Canada (bears, eagles, beaver, raccoons, wolverine etc.) and other animals native to Northern climates (Siberian tigers, snow leopards, reindeer, musk ox, etc.).

Price of zoo in 2005 is between $2.25 and $4.25 per person.

Assiniboine Park and Assiniboine Park Conservatory.
The park stretches over 378 acres (153 hectares) along the Assiniboine River. There is the Zoo, Conservatory, English Garden, and Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, etc. Indoor gardens include a tropical palm house and seven different annual displays of flowers and foliage.

Assiniboine Park and Assiniboine Park Zoo
This large park is right in the city. There are trails, picnic sites, open areas for sunbathing and frisbee. In the winter there is skating and a toboggan slide.
The zoo is great, the animals are from around the world, but most are northern animals.