Vaughan to Caledon and the Hockley Valley: the hills next door

The hills on the doorstep

Caledon is the township of hills, valleys and villages between Vaughan's western edge and Orangeville — the Niagara Escarpment and the Oak Ridges Moraine meeting in a landscape of river gorges, badlands, forest and farms that Kleinburg families see from their own back roads and rarely stop in. It has the Cheltenham Badlands, the red Queenston shale hills exposed by a century of farming; the Forks of the Credit, where the Credit River drops through a gorge past the stone village of Belfountain; the Hockley Valley, the deep valley of the Nottawasaga's headwaters with a resort, a ski hill and a spa on its slope; the Bruce Trail and the Caledon Trailway; the orchards and cider houses along Airport Road; and, in the first two weeks of October, a colour drive on Airport Road and the Hockley Road that the region's own tourism office rates against Muskoka's. It is forty-five minutes from a Vaughan driveway, which makes it the trip families book on a Sunday afternoon, and the chauffeured version exists for the Badlands' reservation, the Forks' parking and the spa's wine.

The Cheltenham Badlands

The Cheltenham Badlands on Olde Base Line Road are a small, startling landscape of red and grey shale hills and gullies — the most photographed thing in Caledon and, since the Credit Valley Conservation Authority rebuilt the site with a boardwalk and a lot, a reservation on busy weekends: timed parking booked online, a shuttle from a nearby lot on the fall-colour weekends, and a boardwalk that keeps the crowd off the shale. A chauffeured family holds the slot and is dropped at the boardwalk; the site is twenty minutes' walk and a hundred photographs, and the Luxury SUV is at the lot's exit when the family is.

The Forks of the Credit and Belfountain

The Forks of the Credit Provincial Park is the gorge where the Credit's two branches meet below the escarpment, with a trail from the Forks of the Credit Road to the Cataract falls and the old mill's ruins, the Kettle Lake, and the Bruce Trail through it; Belfountain, the stone village at the park's edge, has the Belfountain Conservation Area's swinging bridge, its fountain and its picnic grounds on the river, the Higher Ground café and the village's ice cream. The Forks of the Credit Road itself — a hairpin descent from Caledon's plateau into the gorge — is the drive the chauffeur takes slowly and the family photographs; the road's lots are small and the reservation logic of the Badlands has arrived at Belfountain's conservation area on fall weekends.

The Hockley Valley

The Hockley Valley Road runs from Airport Road east through the valley's floor with the Nottawasaga's headwaters beside it, the Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve's trails on the slopes, and the Hockley Valley Resort on the south wall — a resort with a ski hill of a dozen runs, a golf course, a spa with outdoor pools, restaurants and rooms, which is the couple's spa day from Vaughan in a Premium Sedan: dropped at the resort at ten, the spa until three, lunch on the terrace, a walk on the valley trail, dinner, and home by nine. A family's ski afternoon in winter is an SUV with the skis inside and the hill twenty minutes closer than Barrie's; the Adamo Estate winery beside the resort is the adults' hour.

The orchards and Airport Road

Airport Road north from Caledon East to Mono Mills and the Hockley turn is the township's spine, and along it in September and October are the apple orchards — Spirit Tree Estate Cidery's orchard, bakery and cider house at Caledon, the pick-your-own farms toward Mono — and the colour drive that is the region's October: the road climbs the moraine and the escarpment's hills with the valleys opening on both sides, and a chauffeured Sunday from Woodbridge does the Badlands at ten, Belfountain at noon, Spirit Tree at two and the Hockley Road's colour at four, home by six with the cargo area full of apples. The Caledon tourism site has the orchards and the fall calendar.

The trails

The Bruce Trail crosses Caledon from the Forks of the Credit to the Hockley Valley and beyond, and the Caledon Trailway — the old rail bed from Terra Cotta to Palgrave — is the flat, thirty-five-kilometre walk or cycle through the township's villages; a family with bicycles books the Executive Sprinter for the one-way shuttle, dropped at Terra Cotta and collected at Caledon East or Palgrave with lunch at the village between. The Albion Hills Conservation Area near Palgrave has the mountain-bike trails and the summer's swimming pond, and the Glen Haffy Conservation Area at Mono Mills has the trout ponds that children fish.

The route

Highway 27 north from Vaughan through Nobleton and Schomberg, Highway 9 west to Airport Road and north — or Highway 50 north through Bolton to the Caledon roads — forty-five minutes from Kleinburg or Woodbridge, an hour from Thornhill or the VMC. No highway to speak of, no tolls, and the country roads are the point; the routing estimate's hour is about right.

Which vehicle

An SUV for a family day with boosters at $25 each; a Premium Sedan for a couple's spa day or a Belfountain lunch; a Sprinter for a group's colour Sunday or the Trailway's bicycle shuttle. Nothing about Caledon's roads needs anything special outside a winter storm, when the valley's hills are the reason a chauffeured SUV drives them.

What the chauffeur replaces

Not the drive — forty-five minutes is not the argument. The Badlands' reservation and the Forks' lots on a colour weekend; the spa's wine; the Trailway's shuttle; and the parent who would rather see the Hockley Road's colour than drive it. For a family of four it is a convenience purchase that the site prices plainly; for a Sprinter of eight it undercuts two cars on a weekend when the lots are the problem.

Seasons

The first two weeks of October for the colour and the orchards, when the Badlands and Belfountain run their reservation systems and the roads are full; September for the apples; May and June for the Forks' spring water and the trails' wildflowers; winter for the Hockley hill and the spa; July and August for Albion Hills' pond and the Trailway in shade.

Pairing it

Caledon is the pretty road home from Collingwood and Wasaga by Highway 10 and the Hockley Road, the half-day that pairs with a Kleinburg lunch and the McMichael gallery — the Kleinburg guide covers it — and the spa day that pairs with nothing because it is the point.

A colour Sunday, in order

A family of four from Kleinburg in a Luxury SUV on the second Sunday of October: pickup at 9:30 with boosters; Highway 27 north through Nobleton and King City's edge, Highway 9 west, the Cheltenham Badlands' 10:30 reservation on Olde Base Line Road — the boardwalk's twenty minutes and the photographs; the Forks of the Credit Road's hairpin descent at 11:15 with the gorge's colour below; Belfountain's swinging bridge and the river's picnic ground at 11:45, lunch from the café; the Forks of the Credit park's trail to the Cataract falls at one; Spirit Tree's orchard and cider house on Boston Mills Road at 2:30 for the apples, the wood-fired bakery and a case in the cargo area; Airport Road north to the Hockley Road at 3:30 for the valley's colour with the windows down; home by Highway 9 and 27 at 5:15. Eight hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine, and a Sunday that the family would otherwise have spent in three lots' queues.

The spa day, in order

A couple from Thornhill in a Premium Sedan in November: pickup at 9:45, Highway 7 and 27 north, Highway 9 and Airport Road to the Hockley Valley Road, the resort's forecourt at 10:40; the spa's outdoor pools in the cold air with the valley below until one; lunch on the terrace; the Adamo Estate winery's tasting at three next door; the valley's trail for forty minutes at four; dinner at the resort at six; the sedan at 8:15 and Thornhill by 9:15. Ten and a half hours of hourly hire — the price of the wine and the valley road home in the dark — and the resort's site for the spa's reservation, which fills on weekends.

The Trailway shuttle, worked through

A family of five with bicycles from Woodbridge in an Executive Sprinter: the bicycles in the bay, the drop at the Caledon Trailway's Terra Cotta trailhead at ten, the family's twenty kilometres of flat rail bed through Inglewood and Cheltenham's edge to Caledon East by one with lunch at the village, and the Sprinter at Caledon East's trailhead lot for the bicycles and the drive home — or the full thirty-five to Palgrave for the fit. The Trailway is the Trans Canada Trail's Caledon section; the town's site has the map and the trailheads.

Albion Hills, Glen Haffy and the summer

In July the township's afternoon is Albion Hills Conservation Area near Palgrave — the swimming pond with its beach, the mountain-bike trails, the picnic groves, the splash pad — or Glen Haffy at Mono Mills with the trout ponds where children fish with rented rods and a lookout over the Humber's headwaters; both are Toronto and Region Conservation Authority parks with day-use fees and lots that fill on July Saturdays, and a chauffeured family is dropped at the pond with the cooler. The TRCA's site has the fees and the hours.

Pickup notes

Highway 27 north from Woodbridge and Kleinburg — the township begins at their edge; Highway 400 and 9 or Highway 7 and 27 from Maple, the VMC and Thornhill; no tolls. Give us the Badlands' slot, the villages and the orchards in order, the spa's reservation, the bicycles and the trailheads, or the pond; the seats; and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the colour report on it.

Booking it

Book an hourly half-day or day from your Vaughan address with the Badlands' slot, the villages and the orchards in the notes, or the spa's reservation for a couple; tell us the seats and the bicycles, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the colour report on it.

Book the Caledon day