Vaughan to Elora and Fergus: the gorge, the mill and the Grand River towns

Elora, on the edge of the gorge

Elora is the village where the Grand River drops into a limestone gorge twenty metres deep — the village's main street ends at the edge of it, the old mill stands over the falls at its head, and the Elora Gorge Conservation Area runs the river's tubing, the trails along the cliffs and the campground along its length. Beside the village the Elora Quarry is a swimming hole in a flooded limestone pit with a cliff and a beach; two kilometres downriver, Fergus is the larger, stone-built Scottish town with the Grand's own falls behind its main street and, in August, the Scottish Festival and Highland Games on its fairground. For Vaughan it is the closest day trip on this site that feels like a distance, and the chauffeured version exists because the gorge's lots, the Quarry's cap and the village's summer parking are the three things that spoil a Saturday there.

The gorge and the tubing

The Elora Gorge Conservation Area's tubing run is the summer's main event: two kilometres of the Grand through the gorge on a rented tube, with the launch at the top and the take-out at the bottom, a shuttle back, and the rapids' small drops that make it a ride for children over a certain height. The Grand River Conservation Authority runs it with a cap on tubes, an equipment package with helmet and vest, and a first-come line that forms by ten on a July weekend; the park's day-use fee covers the trails and the cliff lookouts — the Hole in the Rock, the Cascade, the Punchbowl on the Irvine Creek side — that are the walk for the family that does not tube. A chauffeured family from Woodbridge is at the gate at nine with the Luxury SUV, tubes by ten, the river until noon, and the vehicle at the take-out lot when the shuttle brings the family back.

The Quarry

The Elora Quarry is a flooded limestone quarry on the village's edge with a beach, cliffs, deep clear water and a cap on daily admission that the Conservation Authority sells in timed slots online — the afternoon swim after the morning's tubing for families who reserved it, and the reason a chauffeured day holds two reservations rather than one. The chauffeur drops at the gate; the travel desk can buy the slot with the booking.

The Elora Mill and the village

The Elora Mill Hotel & Spa is the 1830s stone mill at the head of the gorge, rebuilt as a hotel with a restaurant on the falls, a spa across the river, and terraces over the water — the couple's overnight from Vaughan in a Premium Sedan: down on Friday, dinner over the falls, the spa on Saturday, the village's galleries and the gorge walk, home Sunday. The village itself is a few blocks of nineteenth-century limestone shops on Mill Street and Metcalfe Street — galleries, a chocolatier, the Elora Brewing Company's taproom, the Saturday farmers' market — and it is walked from the Mill's forecourt; the chauffeur drops there and the village's summer lots are not the family's problem.

Fergus

Fergus, two kilometres downriver, is the stone town: the Grand's falls behind St. Andrew Street, the Fergus Grand Theatre, the Wellington County Museum in the old poorhouse between the two towns, and the fairground where the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games runs on the second weekend of August — pipe bands, heavy events, dancing, the massed bands on the Saturday evening — the day that Vaughan's Scottish families book a Sprinter for, dropped at the gate at ten and collected at the massed bands' end. The festival's site sells the passes; the town's lots are the reason for the drop.

West Montrose and the country roads

Ten minutes south of Elora on the Grand, the West Montrose covered bridge — the Kissing Bridge, the last covered bridge in Ontario, built in 1881 — is the photograph on the way to or from St. Jacobs, whose Mennonite country begins there; a chauffeured day that does Elora's morning and St. Jacobs' market afternoon crosses it. The county roads between the two are the Mennonite buggies' roads and the chauffeur drives them accordingly.

The route

The 407 west to the 401, the 401 west to Highway 6 north at Guelph, and Highway 6 or the Wellington county roads to Elora — an hour and a quarter from Kleinburg or Woodbridge; or Highway 7 west through Georgetown and Acton to Guelph and up, the country road that is the same time without the tolls. The routing estimate's hour and forty is the no-toll version; the fare includes the 407 and the chauffeur uses it.

Which vehicle

An SUV for a family's tubing and Quarry day with boosters at $25 each; an Executive Sprinter for the Scottish Festival's group or two families; a Premium Sedan for the Mill's overnight. A stretch limousine is booked for a wedding at the Mill — one of the region's wedding venues — and the wedding page covers the run.

What the chauffeur replaces

The gorge's morning line and its lots; the Quarry's gate; the village's summer parking; the festival's fairground lots; and, for the couple, the drive home from a dinner over the falls. The fare is one number in the booking engine — an hourly day or a return pair — and for a family of four it is a comfort purchase against a day that is otherwise three reservations and three parking hunts; for a Sprinter of eight at the festival it undercuts two cars.

Seasons

Late June to Labour Day for the tubing and the Quarry; the second weekend of August for the festival; September and October for the gorge's colour, the village's Elora Fall Festival and the Mill's shoulder rates; December for the village's lights and the Mill's holiday dinners. The gorge trails are open year-round.

Pairing it

Elora pairs with St. Jacobs for a market afternoon, with Guelph for the basilica on the way, and with Kitchener's Oktoberfest for an October weekend that does the gorge by day and the halls by night.

A summer Saturday, in order, for a family of five

The Luxury SUV from Woodbridge at 7:45 with boosters and the swim kit; the 407 and 401 to Highway 6, the county roads to the Elora Gorge Conservation Area's gate at 9:05; the tubing rental line at 9:20, tubes and helmets by 9:50, the shuttle to the launch, the two-kilometre float through the gorge with the small rapids and the cliffs above — an hour and a quarter — the take-out, and the SUV at the take-out lot at 11:30 with towels. The village for lunch at 12:15 on Mill Street; the Quarry's 2 p.m. timed slot, reserved in June, for the swim and the cliff-watching until four; the gorge's Hole in the Rock lookout at 4:30 for the photograph; Fergus's falls behind St. Andrew Street at five and an ice cream; home by 6:45 with the three children asleep. Eleven hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine, two reservations held, no lot hunted.

The gorge's trails, without the tube

The Elora Gorge Conservation Area's trails run both rims of the gorge from the village to the confluence with the Irvine Creek: the Hole in the Rock's staircase down through the limestone to the river's edge, the Cascade on the Irvine side, the Punchbowl's pool and the lookouts along the cliff — an hour and a half of walking for a family that does not tube, or the afternoon after the morning's float. The Conservation Authority's site has the trail map and the day-use fee; the Elora Cataract Trailway, the old rail bed from Elora to Cataract, is the flat walk or cycle between the village and Fergus.

The Mill weekend, for a couple

Friday: the Premium Sedan from Kleinburg at three, the Mill's forecourt by 4:30, the room over the falls, dinner in the Mill's restaurant with the gorge lit below. Saturday: the spa across the footbridge in the morning, the village's galleries and the Elora Brewing Company at noon, the gorge's rim walk in the afternoon, dinner in Fergus. Sunday: the market at Elora's Bissell Park in the morning, checkout, and the country road home through West Montrose's covered bridge and St. Jacobs for lunch; Kleinburg by four. A return pair — two one-ways — with the Sunday's country road as a request at booking, one number before Friday, and the Elora Mill's site for the room.

The Scottish Festival's Saturday, for a group

A group of ten from Thornhill in an Executive Sprinter: pickup at 8:30, the 407 and 401, the Fergus fairground's gate at 10:15 with the passes bought in July; the heavy events and the pipe-band competitions through the day, the beer tent, the Highland dancing, dinner from the fairground's vendors; the massed bands at seven — three hundred pipers on the field at dusk, the reason to stay — and the Sprinter at the gate at eight thirty; Thornhill by ten. Twelve hours of hourly hire, one number, split ten ways, and the fairground's lots — a field on a farm road — never the group's problem.

Pickup notes

The 407 to the 401 from every Vaughan community, or Highway 7 west from Woodbridge and Kleinburg through Georgetown and Acton to Guelph — the no-toll road the chauffeur takes on a Sunday. Give us the tubing morning, the Quarry slot, the Mill's nights, the festival's passes, the seats and the swim kit, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the river's conditions on it.

Booking it

Book an hourly day from your Vaughan address with the tubing and Quarry reservations, a return pair for the Mill's overnight, or a Sprinter for the festival's Saturday; tell us the seats and the swim kit, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Elora day