The best dog-friendly hikes and walks in Greenbelt

Main Road is one of the wider routes through Conroy Pit and acts as a useful spine for linking the smaller wooded trails branching off either side. It’s mostly flat and straightforward underfoot, making it an easier section for covering ground through the off-leash area. Expect plenty of dogs here, and watch for the side trails if you want to leave the broader path and explore more of the forest.

Conroy Pit is part of the Pine Grove sector of Ottawa’s Greenbelt, with a network of mostly flat trails running through forest and open grassy areas. Much of the site is designated for off-leash dogs, so expect plenty of dogs along the way. The interconnected trails make it easy to put together a short loop or wander for longer, while still staying close to the city.

Root Walk Way is a short singletrack through the woods at Conroy Pit, running for about 420 metres with almost no elevation change. As the name suggests, expect plenty of exposed roots underfoot, especially through the more wooded sections, so it can feel rougher than the wider paths nearby despite being an easy trail overall. It’s easy to follow and works well as a quieter connector through the larger Conroy Pit network.

This section of the Rideau Trail cuts straight through Monaghan Forest. First imagined in 1971 and named after the Rideau Canal, the trail crosses everything from farmland to rugged Canadian Shield between Kingston and Ottawa. The wider Rideau watershed has been home to Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, with the Algonquin Nation historically present across its northern two-thirds.

This is one of Lafarge's quarries, where limestone rock is mined and crushed to make cement. From here, you have a good view of some of the mining operations.

Forest Valley is great for summer and winter fun. In summer, hiking and biking on certain trails is the best way to see this protected area. In winter, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, fat tire biking and even skating on frozen ponds bring the forest to life in winter. Please stay on the paths to protect vegetation. The trail network here is perfect for exploring loops of different sizes instead of just out and back trails.

This trail within Forest Valley follows a fence line for about 900 meters, a straight shot, and still wooded and beautiful.

Leave the pavement and enter the dirt trails of Forest Valley, the densely wooded track of land sandwiched between suburban neighbourhoods. The area is open to dog walking, but there are signs that state if dog owners don't pick up after their dog, there's a heavy fine.