One thing I am making an effort to achieve after my move back home to Ontario Canada is to treat my home province more like I did the foreign country’s that I lived in. My whole young adult life living in Ontario, my world was small and confined. Only visiting familiar areas I visited repetitively without exploring much of what my province truly had to offer. Ontario might seem boring as a local, but if you look closer and do some research, there really are some truly beautiful areas that are quite literally, just in our backyard, the Cheltenham Badlands!
Cheltenham BadLands
The Bad Lands with a wonderful example! Just off of Missisuaga Road, the Cheltenham Badlands are right snug in between Brampton, Georgetown, Mississauga and Erin. Although you need to drive along some country back roads, the fact you can take a direct road from the GTA(Greater Toronto Area) almost directly to the landscape makes this picturesque area very easily accessible.
The land formations are a stunning occurrence of terracotta red clay and grey/white clay that has formed over decades of erosion, forming cascading hills of stripped clay that gives the appearance of a desert on Mars.
Thanks to travel websites such as BlogTO and Narcity Toronto, this area has quickly become a must-see summer trip this 2018. The landscape has been closed for the past 3 years in an attempt to better “preserve” the natural formations as tourism has started to negatively impact the formations. The city has implemented proper viewing decks and designated paths to follow to keep the public from “free climbing” the hills, thus damaging that sensitive landscape.
So if you plan to visit the Cheltenham Badlands this summer 2018, make sure you don’t climb around and damage the natural formations. If you bring your kids and family, please do respect this rare landscape, and keep your children from climbing and playing in the delicate clay which has taken decades to form naturally.
But I mean… It is quite the stunning place to do a mini photo shoot!
