Every year some of us friends go away from home for a night or two to enjoy the fall colors of Ontario. This was our sixth year. Initially we had planned to go to Waterloo for one night but things didn't work out. So, instead of totally scraping the fall trip we decided to make it a Fall day trip. As we have kids who are relatively small and extremely reluctant to go for long drives we always plan to visit places that are not more than 3 - 4 hours drive, preferably much shorter. Having been to Midland, Huntsville, Ottawa, Peterborough our choices near home was limited. After some researching in the net I felt Forks of the Credit Provincial park would be a good place to go for a nice hike. Especially the long stairs down to the river was a sure pull. In addition there was the Badlands nearby. Between those two spending 4-5 hours seemed like fun.
From Ajax we took 401 West, hopped onto 410 North and then merged into Hwy 10 or Hurontorio road. After about 9 kilometers on Hwy 10 we turned left on Olde Side road (West). After driving about 4 kilometers we noticed several dozens of cars parked on the side of a hilly road. There was no large signs but I sort of assumed that this was probably the Badlands. We parked the car by the side of the road and walked about 50 meters to the spot. The Badlands was a spectacular view and the kids who were sort of reluctant to come in this fall trip were totally amazed and amused.
From there we went to Forks of the credit provincial park. There are many ways to get there. But from Badlands one of the most scenic way would be to take Mississauga road north all the way to Forks of the credit road (11), follow it all the way to McLaren road. The road meanders through woods and goes uphill and downhill with one hairpin turn. Overall very nice drive. On McLaren we drove several kilometers before reaching the park entrance. This is a popular park and in fall a large crowd comes to visit it. When we reached there most of the parking lots were totally full. Many people parked on the road leading to the parking lots and some even parked on McLaren road and walked several hundred meters to the trail mouths. We were fortunate enough to find some parking spots as some people were leaving. My friends bought parking passes from a machine and placed it on the dashboard (I received a parking pass from an elderly couple who were leaving early. How generous of them! The parking passes are $5:50 and above depending on duration). Later we saw a police officer was issuing tickets to the people who did not buy a pass.
There are several trails in this park, most are very easy meandering through meadows and small hills. We took the trail that is called Meadows trail. Here are some of the images.
From their we went to the village of Belfountain which seemed like a popular place with hundreds of visitors flocking the small but scenic place. We all stopped by an ice cream shop and savored in delicious scoops of ice creams. Later we bought some honey from a street vendor and head toward waterloo.
