The scientific work describes an approach to the study of the ecological and tourism potential of the urbanized area on the example of the Pekhorka River valley in the city of Balashikha, Moscow Region. Balashikha is the largest city in Moscow Region and one of the largest cities in Russia, the ecological framework of which is largely concentrated in the valley complex of the small river of Pekhorka. Remote sensing image interpretation and field observation, landscape analysis, methods of functional zoning of urban geosystems, quantitative assessment and ecological and touristic potential assessment are used in the study. The final assessment of ecological and touristic potential for tourist and recreational activities zones within the municipality was obtained. 67% of tourist and recreational activities zones are occupied by forest parks and urban parks. The largest tourist and recreational load falls on the «Kuchinskaya» zone with the high ecological and tourism potential. Ecological tourism in Kuchinsky forest park is insufficiently supported. Preservation of cultural and landscape framework of the Pekhorka River valley, as well as the consideration of the prospects for creating new specially protected natural areas are necessary for ecological tourism development. Ecological and touristic potential is defined as «above average» for the study area, it means that many opportunities for the suburban ecological tourism remain.