Cheltenham Badlands

The Queenston shale here is red from iron oxide, and the green-grey bands running through it are where groundwater changed the iron to a different state. What makes the site unusual is the cause: this is not natural badlands but the result of farming, mostly cattle grazing, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that stripped the topsoil and let erosion cut the rippled gullies now visible. It became one of the most photographed spots in southern Ontario, and the trampling was destroying it, so the Ontario Heritage Trust closed it in 2015 and reopened it in 2018 with a boardwalk and viewing platform only, plus timed parking reservations.

History

In the late 1800s and early 1900s this land was farmed, mostly for cattle grazing, and the clearing and grazing left the soft shale open to erosion; farming stopped in 1931 and most of the property began to recover, but the bare slopes kept wearing away. A section of the Bruce Trail has crossed the site since 1989, and after so many visitors walked on the formations that the damage accelerated, the Ontario Heritage Trust fenced it off in July 2015 and reopened it on 22 September 2018 (Wikipedia, Cheltenham Badlands).

What's there

• The red shale - iron-stained rock cut into rippled gullies.
• The green bands - stripes where groundwater altered the iron.
• The boardwalk - a raised platform replacing the destroyed direct access.
• The erosion story - badlands left by early farming, not by nature.

When to go

April to October; parking is by timed reservation in season and sells out on weekends. Low sun deepens the red. The site closes in winter.

Good to know

Walking on the shale is now prohibited and enforced; the visit is from a boardwalk. Parking reservations are required and limited. The site is small and takes half an hour.

Nearby

The Bruce Trail passes close; Toronto lies southeast.

Key facts