Point Pleasant Park

Point Pleasant Park is one of Halifax’s largest parks and is municipally owned and managed. The park is located at 5718 Point Pleasant Drive on the southern tip of the Halifax Peninsula (not far from Saint Mary’s University). Point Pleasant was first leased as a public park in 1866.

Photo: pointpleasantpark.ca

The park borders the Atlantic ocean, and there is a magnificent view of the Halifax harbour from the coastline. If you visit in the summer you may be lucky enough to spot the harbour seals that sun themselves on the rocks. In the park you can find extensive areas of forest, roads and trails, rocky cliffs as well as abandoned ruins such as old quarries and roads. There are over 90 different plant species in the park.

There is an extensive management plan to keep Point Pleasant Park’s forest and coastline healthy (but also aesthetically pleasing) put into place by HRM forestry, park staff, and the Point Pleasant park advisory committee. Trees are regularly planted, thinned and spaced, or removed. There are several alien species that reside in the park, including the invasive Norway maple tree. The Norway maple tree was introduced to Canada as an ‘urban street tree’, but HRM stopped planting them in 1996 due in part to their tendency to crowd out wild native trees. These trees are slowly being removed and replaced in the park.

For more info on Point Pleasant, please visit www.pointpleasantpark.ca. The pictures below are Sam’s pictures; stay tuned for more recent pictures and also a post on the dingle in a few days when the weather warms up a bit!