Vaughan to Hamilton's waterfalls and the Royal Botanical Gardens: the escarpment day

Hamilton, the waterfall city

Hamilton calls itself the waterfall capital of the world on the strength of more than a hundred falls where the Niagara Escarpment crosses the city, and a dozen of them are the reason Vaughan families drive an hour down the 407 on a Saturday: Webster's Falls, the twenty-two-metre curtain in the Spencer Gorge above Dundas; Tews Falls beside it, forty-one metres, the region's tallest; the Dundas Peak, the lookout at the gorge's mouth over the town and the bay; Albion Falls in the city's east end; Tiffany Falls on the Ancaster road; and Devil's Punchbowl on the Stoney Creek escarpment. Beside them, on the bay's western end, the Royal Botanical Gardens is the largest botanical garden in Canada — the Hendrie Park rose garden, the Rock Garden, the Laking Garden's irises, the Arboretum's lilacs and the Cootes Paradise marsh trails. The catch is the Spencer Gorge, whose popularity forced the Hamilton Conservation Authority into a timed reservation system with a shuttle on weekends — the kind of logistics a chauffeured family arrives with settled.

The Spencer Gorge: Webster's, Tews and the Peak

The Hamilton Conservation Authority runs the Spencer Gorge Conservation Area — Webster's Falls, Tews Falls and the Dundas Peak — on a reservation system in the busy seasons: timed entry booked online, a shuttle from a Dundas lot to the falls on weekends when the gorge's own lots are closed, and a cap that the fall-colour weekends reach within days of release. Webster's is the falls at the top of the gorge with the stone bridge and the lawn; Tews is the tall, thin one a kilometre along the trail with the platform; the Peak is another kilometre to the lookout over Dundas and the bay — a loop of two and a half hours for a family with children over six. A chauffeured family holds the reservation, is dropped at the shuttle lot or the gorge's gate as the season requires, and the Luxury SUV is at the exit when the family is; the travel desk can hold the slot with the booking.

The other falls

Albion Falls on Mountain Brow Boulevard in the east end has a lookout at the top and a lot beside it — ten minutes; Tiffany Falls on Wilson Street in Ancaster is a short trail from a small lot to a bridge under the falls — twenty minutes; the Devil's Punchbowl in Stoney Creek is a ribbon falls into a bowl of the escarpment with a lookout and the city's cross — ten minutes; Sherman Falls and Canterbury Falls on the Ancaster side are the Bruce Trail's own. A chauffeured day that has done the gorge in the morning does two of these in the afternoon, because the vehicle is moving between lots that are small and the family is not hunting them.

The Royal Botanical Gardens

The RBG's five gardens are spread along the bay's western end between Hamilton and Burlington: Hendrie Park's rose garden and the RBG Centre with its Mediterranean glasshouse, the Rock Garden across the road with its ravine of pools and plantings, the Laking Garden's irises and peonies in June, the Arboretum's lilac dell in May, and Cootes Paradise's marsh trails with the boardwalk and the bird observatory. Two to three hours for a family with the RBG Centre's café for lunch; the chauffeur drops at each garden's gate — they are five minutes apart by road — and the RBG's site has the bloom calendar that sets the day.

Dundas

Dundas is the valley town at the escarpment's foot below the gorge — King Street's shops, cafés and bakeries, the Dundas Museum, the Cactus Festival in August and the Dundas Valley Conservation Area's trails with the Bruce Trail through it — and lunch on King Street is the middle of a waterfall day. The chauffeur drops on King Street; the town's lots are the vehicle's.

The route

The 407 west from Vaughan to the 403, the 403 south to Hamilton's exits — Highway 6 and the 403's Main Street West exit for Dundas and the gorge, the Plains Road exit for the RBG, the Red Hill Parkway for Albion and the Punchbowl — an hour from Woodbridge or Kleinburg, an hour and ten from Thornhill. The routing estimate's hour ten is the no-toll version; the fare includes the 407 and the 403 through Burlington is the one stretch that slows.

The day, in shape

A family of five from Maple: the SUV at 8 a.m. with boosters and boots, the gorge's shuttle lot at 9:10 with the 9:30 reservation, Webster's, Tews and the Peak until noon, Dundas's lunch at 12:30, the RBG's Rock Garden and Hendrie Park at two, Tiffany Falls at four on the way to the 403, home by 5:30. Nine and a half hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine.

Which vehicle

An SUV for a family with boosters at $25 each; an Executive Sprinter for two families or a hiking group with the Bruce Trail's shuttle in mind; a Premium Sedan for a couple's RBG rose-garden afternoon and a Dundas dinner. The falls' lots are small and the Sprinter uses the shuttle lot, which is the point.

What the chauffeur replaces

The gorge's reservation and shuttle logistics; the small lots at every falls; the 403's afternoon; and the Bruce Trail's one-way shuttle for a hiking group. For a family of four it is a comfort purchase against a day of five lots, and the site says so; for two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars and two reservations.

Seasons

Spring for the falls at their fullest from the melt and the RBG's lilacs and irises; the first two weeks of October for the gorge's colour — the weekends the reservation system exists for; June for the roses; summer for the marsh trails and the Cactus Festival; winter for the frozen falls, when Webster's and Tews are ice columns and the gorge is open without the reservation and with the ice underfoot — a walk for the careful.

Pairing it

Hamilton pairs with the African Lion Safari twenty minutes west for a children's day, with Niagara-on-the-Lake down the QEW for the Twenty Valley's wineries, and with the Cambridge river day up Highway 8.

The gorge's reservation, practically

The Hamilton Conservation Authority's Spencer Gorge system runs on its busiest weekends — the fall-colour weekends of late September and October above all, and the summer's — with timed reservations sold online in advance, a shuttle from the Christie Lake Conservation Area's lot on Highway 5 to the falls, the gorge's own Fallsview Road lots closed, and a cap that the October Saturdays reach within days of release; on off-season weekdays the gorge's lots open and the reservation is not needed. The conservation authority's site has the current season's rules, which change; the chauffeur checks them the evening before and the confirmation restates the drop — the shuttle lot or the gorge's gate — and the return.

The Bruce Trail shuttle

The Bruce Trail crosses Hamilton's escarpment from the Dundas Valley to Stoney Creek, and a hiking group from Thornhill books the Executive Sprinter for the shuttle the trail's guide describes as the region's problem: dropped at the Dundas Valley's trail centre at nine, the trail's fourteen kilometres past Sherman and Tiffany Falls to the Chedoke stairs, and the Sprinter at the stairs' top at two with lunch in Westdale after — the one-way walk that two cars and a shuttle would otherwise make. The Dundas Peak's approach from Tews Falls is the short version; the Bruce Trail Conservancy's map is the reference.

Westdale, Locke Street and the city's afternoon

Hamilton's own streets are a half-day a family adds: Westdale's village by McMaster University, Locke Street's shops and bakeries, James Street North's galleries and the art crawl on the second Friday, the Art Gallery of Hamilton downtown, Bayfront Park's marina and trail, and Dundurn Castle — the 1830s mansion of Sir Allan MacNab on the bay's edge, a National Historic Site with costumed tours that is the family's hour. The chauffeur drops at each; the city's downtown garages are the vehicle's.

A family day with the RBG first

The reverse day for a family with younger children: the RBG's Hendrie Park at nine when the rose garden opens and the paths are empty, the Rock Garden's pools at ten thirty, lunch at the RBG Centre's café, Dundas's King Street for the bakery at one, the gorge's afternoon reservation at two with Webster's lawn for the picnic and the Peak for the parents while the grandparents sit by the falls, and home by six. The RBG's bloom calendar sets the garden; the gorge's slot sets the afternoon.

Pickup notes

The 407 and 403 from every Vaughan community; a Woodbridge or Kleinburg pickup joins the 407 at Weston Road and a Thornhill or Concord one at Bathurst or Dufferin. Give us the gorge's reservation, the falls in order, the RBG's gardens, Dundas's lunch and the trail's shuttle if it is a hike, the seats and the boots, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the season's rules on it.

What the day costs, in shape

A family of four driving to Hamilton for the falls pays fuel, the 407, the gorge's reservation and shuttle, the RBG's admission and five small lots' hunting; the chauffeured hourly day is one number in the booking engine with the toll inside it and the admissions not, and for one family it is a comfort purchase the site prices plainly. For two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars and two reservations; for a hiking group it is the shuttle the Bruce Trail has never had.

Booking it

Book an hourly day from your Vaughan address with the gorge reservation, the falls you want, the RBG's gardens and Dundas's lunch in the notes; tell us the seats and the boots, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the reservation's window on it.

Book the waterfall day