I Heart Heartland Forest
FREE trails and fun for your little ones!
(Watch our YouTube video recap at the bottom!)
We have two boys (a 3 year old and a 1 year old), and keeping them entertained can be a challenge. We always find ourselves sitting at the breakfast table asking ourselves the same questions:
Where can we go?
How far away is it?
How long can we stay?
Can we take our dog?
How much is it going to cost?
You’d think that after 3 years of asking these questions, we would have a pretty good handle on things… But, the truth is that there are so many options that sometimes it can feel impossible to even know where to begin. So inevitably we spend too long trying to make a decision and end up having another day in the backyard, or playing our children’s favourite game: Toddler Toy Drop. You know this one… Where they find every single toy that has ever entered our lives, throw them on the floor, and move on to the next thing while Mommy and Daddy try to keep some sort of sanity.
One of our favourite places to go is Niagara Falls. The area has almost everything. Great scenery, tourist areas filled with attractions and distractions, great food spots, and many more things. But with kids the age of ours, they’re not exactly in awe of the beauty of Niagara Falls itself yet. To them, the garden hose running from a slight height will get the same kind of joy, if not more. We like to look for other things to do that would appeal to young kids for little cost.
So one morning while trying to negotiate with the toddler to put food in the mouth instead of splattering it on the floor, we were searching for something different.
Enter Heartland Forest.
What is Heartland Forest? #HiddenGem!
More than just a forest, Heartland Forest is an area which has 5 walking trails, including a small pollinator path and a boardwalk. It has a main building that houses a gift shop, bathrooms, and a café. There is also a large playground structure, swings, a fully fenced playpen, huge sandbox, and an agility-style obstacle course, as well as an open area with soccer goals. If, like my family, you are part of the canine crew and you have a pet pooch too, then bring the dogs with you to Heartland Forest, and they can actually go in to the café area with you as well.
Where is Heartland Forest? Heartland Forest is located about 10 – 15 minutes away from the Canadian Falls. The address is 8215 Heartland Forest Rd, Niagara Falls, ON L2H 0L5. It is just down the road from a Costco, Cineplex, Starbucks, and Walmart.
How Much Did Heartland Forest Cost? $0! #FreeFamilyFun
You can do Heartland Forest completely free of charge! When we chose to go, we were looking for a day of activities at no cost, so we kept our day completely free. However you can purchase items in the gift shop or café, and they do have a mini-putt course available which costs around $2 per person (the course is generally open May to August). They also have a little train called the Tootsie Express that runs around the playground path that is also $2 per person. (There is a small information kiosk near the playground and mini putt course where you can purchase these).
What Did We LOVE?
1. Heartland Forest is Dog-Friendly!
We live around a 2 hour drive from Niagara, so we often need to arrange with family members to look after our prized pooch if we want to do certain attractions. Being able to take our fur-kid with us was perfect. He turned into a super sniffer the second we arrived, and his nose never stopped working. He had a great time and got to spend quality time exploring with the kids. Although we did not use the café, it’s great to know for future trips that he would be able to join us inside for lunch.
2. The Playground Was Great for Our Boys!
I have two timid toddlers, so often being in crowded places can cause slight anxiety for them. We chose to go a little out of season, just before the pollinator trail began pollinating, and it worked out well for us. There were groups of school children visiting, but they were in some of the picnic areas and pavilions doing activities, so my boys got the play structure all to themselves. They had a blast swinging and sliding to their hearts content. There was also a fenced-off playpen with mulch and dump truck toys. That was the star of the show for us, as the kids began constructing Mount Wood Chip, we could breathe easy knowing they were contained in a safe spot, and take it in turns to visit the bathroom.
3. Water Features Were a Hit!
When you come from the parking lot towards the play structures, there is a very pretty pond area with a small (and safe) bridge to walk across. My boys love anything to do with water. My 3 year old loves rocks, but he especially loves throwing rocks into water. So he would have happily stayed there for the duration of our visit. Our 1 year old loved walking along the boards, so this was a really pretty and fun spot for our crew!
Things To Consider
While we had a great time at Heartland Forest, there are a few things just to be aware of, depending on the age of your children.
Firstly, while the trails are great, they do have water or drop-offs on either side of them. Nothing major, but with our wobbly 1 year old, this did mean that we were in a perpetual state of slight anxiety. The paths of the trails that we did were a decent width, but my boys could easily ping-pong to either side in a matter of seconds. We felt like we needed to be hyper aware the whole time. I know that sounds like common sense with such young kids, but once those feet hit the floor there is only one pace they want to go, and that’s light speed!
It was a similar worry in the obstacle course area. They had structures to climb up and down, and a balance beam for kids to cross. But, on two sides of this area was water again. It wouldn’t take much for active kiddos to end up wading in swampy-like puddles, so just something that you may need to have extra supervision on.
When the train came along, my boys loved seeing it go by with all the kiddies on it. However, the train runs along the same path that you are walking along, so when it comes you need to move off to the side. Since it runs through the same walking area that circles the playground, the have bells and noises that let you know the train is coming. (I am pretty sure you could hear it at the Falls!) If your child is sound sensitive, then it might be best to try and stay clear of the paths where it runs altogether.
Overall Experience?
We Will Definitely Go Back for more FREE family fun in Niagara Falls!
We honestly had a lot more fun than we had expected. We usually have a maximum of about 2 hours in any given place before the boys lose interest and want to go somewhere else, but they would have had no problem staying at Heartland Forest all day if we would have let them! Having gone slightly out of season, none of the forest was in bloom. While that is a shame, the trade off was that we practically had the run of the place to ourselves! So for those with timid toddlers I would definitely recommend going out of season.
The kids got to play, run around and have fun with their dog, and we got to enjoy whole family fun in the heart of Niagara Falls. We brought our own snacks and drinks and so we got to have all this fun together for the pretty incredible price of $0. We know that we will be going back again and again, and we are so happy to have a hidden gem to visit in this wonderful area!
Watch Our YouTube Video Recap:
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