Photos: Tiffany Shum
“Badlands” is a geologic term for an area of soft rock devoid of vegetation and soil cover that has become molded into a rolling landscape of rounded hills and gullies.
Such areas are rare in Ontario and in Canada and the Cheltenham Badlands is one of the best examples. They exhibit the reddish hue of the Queenston Shale that forms them; the iron oxide in the shale produces the reddish colour. The narrow greenish bands that can be seen throughout the shale are due to the change of red iron oxide to green iron oxide brought on by the circulating groundwater.
This site was acquired by the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 2000 and the property is managed by the Credit Valley Conservation.
For further information, contact Credit Valley Conservation at recreation@cvc.ca or visit: http://www.ontariotrails.on.ca/trails/view/cheltenham-hills