8 Best Surrey Parks to See Fall Colours
It's a stunning sight to see leaves changing colour. Visit these eight parks to experience the best fall colours in Surrey.
Fall has arrived but won’t stay for long, so make sure to visit these eight Surrey parks to experience the best fall colours before they’re gone. Bring the Nature Trails of Surrey guide with you for more information about most of these parks.
1. Bear Creek Park
Enjoy fall colours along trails that wind through meadows and forests, and across two salmon-bearing streams: Bear Creek and King Creek. During October and November, look for spawning chum, coho and chinook salmon from the bridges.
2. Colebrook Park
See the spectacular colours and hear the “trembling” of trembling aspens that call this park home. The 1.6-km Spruce Loop trail will take you through the forest, over boardwalks in the swamp and along trembling aspens. You may even see or hear a northern flicker, barn owl or red-tailed hawk!
3. Crescent Park
This is one of Surrey’s largest parks with many trails to choose from. Walk through a forest and past a pond, blanketed by cozy, fall colours. The loop around the pond is wide and compact, while trails through the forest offer a variety of slopes and surfaces.
4. Fleetwood Park
Walk along the 1.8-km loop trail in the southern section of this park, a designated urban forest, surrounded by the changing colours of bigleaf maple, red alder and black cottonwood trees. The trail will take you across Fleetwood Creek, a fish-bearing waterway important for salmon.
5. Green Timbers Urban Forest Park
Explore the fall colours in the many different habitats here—wetlands, meadows, a marsh and a lake are all nestled within a second growth forest. Look for birds like the resident osprey and great blue heron watching for rainbow trout in the lake!
6. Hawthorne Rotary Park
Meander through forests of paper birch, red alder and black cottonwood trees, blending warm colours of red, orange and yellow.
7. Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest Park
Immerse yourself in the colourful, arching vine maples along the trails here. Trails will take you across boardwalks, past streams and through thick forest understory. There is a trail for everyone—from the Wally Ross universal access trail (0.8-km) to more rugged nature trails like the Douglas-fir and Moss trails.
8. Surrey Lake Park
Walk the 1.5-km loop trail beside deciduous trees like bigleaf maples and trembling aspens as they turn to stunning shades of golden-yellow. Stop at one of the benches to take in the view of Surrey Lake (a human-made lake) and look for fish, ducks, frogs and more!
Why leaves change colour
Leaves have a pigment molecule called chlorophyll that make them green. Trees and plants use chlorophyll to capture energy from sunlight to transform carbon dioxide and water into oxygen. Leaves also have other pigment molecules that produce colours like red, yellow, orange and even purple. In the summer, when there’s a lot of sunlight, chlorophyll outnumbers the other pigments, resulting in green leaves. As we approach fall and there’s less and less sunlight, trees and plants produce less chlorophyll and “unmask” the other colours.
Don’t cut City trees
After the leaves change colour and fall to the ground, remember: just because a tree has no leaves doesn’t mean it needs pruning. It needs to stay dormant to store energy and produce leaves next spring.
Please do not cut City trees and leave the pruning to our certified arborists. See more about trees in Surrey.
Contact info
stewardship@surrey.ca