Elora

The Grand River has cut a gorge about twenty-two metres deep through dolomitic limestone at Elora, and the village sits on the rim, built from the same stone in the nineteenth century around a five-storey mill of 1859 that now operates as a hotel. The Elora Quarry, worked for limestone until the 1970s, filled with spring water and became a swimming lake ringed by twelve-metre cliffs, now a conservation area with a daily capacity limit and advance reservations. The Elora Gorge conservation area below the village runs tubing on the river through the rapids. Sections of the gorge floor hold the Cascade and the Hole in the Wall.

What you actually see

• The gorge - a twenty-two metre limestone canyon through the village.
• The 1859 mill - a five-storey stone mill on the river, now a hotel.
• The quarry lake - a spring-fed swimming quarry inside cliff walls.
• The tubing run - river tubing through the gorge rapids in summer.

When to go

May to September for the quarry and tubing, both of which need advance reservations and sell out on hot weekends. The village and gorge trails are open year-round.

Honest expectations

Quarry and tubing capacity is capped with reservations required, and walk-ups are turned away in summer. The village is expensive and busy on weekends. Gorge trails have unfenced drops.

Nearby

St. Jacobs lies southwest; Guelph is south.