A long-term plan to expand trails and parking facilities at the Cheltenham Badlands could allow a high volume of tourists to safely view the dramatic landscape on Olde Baseline Road.
The final site concept was presented at the Caledon East Community Complex on April 5, the last of four public meetings in a Master Plan process. About 50 people attended.
The Badlands were closed to the public three years ago due to safety concerns caused by heavy visitor traffic. A parking lot for 33 cars and two school buses has been completed, along with a new sidewalk leading to a 200-foot viewing boardwalk on the east side of the attraction, but the site is not expected to re-open until August.
People will not be allowed to walk on the Queenston Shale hummocks, featuring red iron oxide with greenish banding. The area was exposed due to erosion caused by tree clearing and poor farming practices.
The site will be managed by Credit Valley Conservation, to eventually be open during daylight hours from April until the end of October. Parking fees are planned.
Located north of Cheltenham, about 2 km east of Winston Churchill Blvd., the property was very popular with tourists – especially during the fall colours season. It remains blocked by a security fence, and that section of Olde Baseline Road is a No Stopping – Tow Away zone.
Some area residents opposed construction of the parking lot, saying it would make the road more hazardous, but their appeal was rejected by the Niagara Escarpment Commission.
The Master Plan still needs approval by the Ontario Heritage Trust (OHT), which has owned the block of land containing the Badlands since 2002.
OHT received about $1.2 million for the recent site improvements. The Region of Peel financed the parking lot, a Canada 150 grant helped with the accessible viewing boardwalk and TD Friends of the Environment contributed to signage that directs visitors and explains the history and geology of the Badlands.
This year, a temporary trail will create a loop that links the existing Bruce Trail with the viewing area and the parking lot. More funding and donations are needed to build washrooms and a new wheelchair-accessible trail from the parking lot as part of Phase 1.
No timing has been set for Phase 2, which includes a trail of limestone screenings on the south side of the Main Badlands, and along the side of a Secondary Badlands feature running south. Staircase-style boardwalks will be built over narrow sections of the shale, and additional loops will be created using the west side, and the main and side trail routes of the Bruce Trail.
Phase 3, which is not expected for about 10 years, features a second parking lot in the far south corner of the property, on Creditview Road. It would accommodate 50 cars and could allow for a shuttle bus service “to be developed by external stakeholders as part of area-wide economic development and tourism opportunities”, according to a display at the public meeting.
“The Trust will need to raise funds to support the implementation of each phase of the plan,” said OHT representative Catrina Colme.
Natural erosion of the hummocks will continue even without human foot traffic. The feature will gradually flatten out over many decades, according to Joe Desloges, professor of Geology and Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Drone surveying shows the height of the hummocks declining about 2.5 cm per year, and the gullies filling in with about half that amount.
