Breathe.
There are only two things to do up here: everything or nothing. Hug a cave. Walk on a lake. Remember what air smells like. Get lost driving, deliberately. Fish, hike, bike, golf, stroll… or just be. Find a spot near Canada’s oldest trees, or along one of Ontario’s highest springs, and think. Even better, don’t think at all.
Headwaters is home to many conservation areas and provincial parks, each offering four-season activities and something memorable. Stroll right over the lake on the Island Lake Conservation Area’s amazing boardwalk (and upcoming floating stage). Walk Canada’s longest footpath, the Bruce Trail, which contains much of Ontario’s 450-million-year-old rock wonder, the
Niagara Escarpment. You can also tackle the Escarpment’s cliffs, caves and limestone trails in Mono Cliffs Provincial Park. Or just take any side road and enjoy the wild turkeys, horses, sheep and cows that are no doubt enjoying you.
Sports in Headwaters are plentiful and take full advantage of our landscape. Each of our many golf courses provide a different visual experience. Hailed as “honest” and “mystical in its beauty”, Osprey Valley Golf’s three courses offer a range of challenges; the Caledon Country Club seamlessly routes through the Credit River, natural creeks and Caledon’s lovely hills.
Birding’s popularity has recently taken flight (yes, we wrote that): it’s easy, inexpensive, social and year-round. A real find is Luther Marsh just north of Grand Valley, the largest inland marsh in southern Ontario and a major wetland habitat. Magnificent great blue heron and our iconic loon are frequent, and you might even spot a rare American white pelican.
Our hilly, tree-lined highways and sideroads are cycling nirvana, even in winter. Caledon Hills Cycling isn’t just a great shop but a cycling hub, suggesting and organizing tours and trails for all levels. Events are everywhere: the Tour de Terra Cotta is like a country-flavoured Tour de France, and for all-nighters, the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice, North America’s largest 24-hour mountain bike festival, takes over Albion Hills every June, with races, camping and events.
It’s natural to want to take it slow up here, too. Retreats and escapes come in many forms, spiritual to soothing. Personal exploration through meditation, yoga and more, in a breathtaking natural setting, happens year-round at the Ecology Retreat Centre in Mono. Thousands of people seek the stress-fighting solace of our graceful bed and breakfasts, such as Cheltenham’s 180-year-old Top of the Hill, and its acclaimed breakfasts. Many of Canada’s best spas are here, like the Millcroft Inn & Spa in Alton, nestled among 100 woodland acres. Spiritual centres are many, including one masterpiece: the International Tai Chi
Centre has built a spectacular Chinese-inspired temple on 100 acres of rural Mono, and people from all walks of life worldwide come for its tai-chi and other spiritually-centered programs. You can, too.
History and nature merge in our area’s many mills and waterfalls, reflecting just how many of our towns were built around them. People love visiting the Millcroft Inn and Spa, built in 1881 as a knitting mill, to eat over or just enjoy beautiful Shaw’s Creek Falls. Crowds come to watch the waterfall crash around the ruins of an 1899 power station at Cataract Mills in the Forks of the
Credit Provincial Park. Every mill and fall is worth a look, especially because of the towns around them.
If you really want to see it all, the Credit Valley Explorer lets you do it, and lets someone else do the driving, too. This three-hour guided train tour from Orangeville to Brampton and back snakes through and above forests, valleys and rivers, stops in postcard-quaint Inglewood, slows to a crawl over the Cataract Falls, and offers a rolling view of fall’s colours, winter’s blanket, and spring and summer’s emerald greenery. In fact, many people come every season for just this reason.
In our country, while every season is celebrated, holidays take on a back-to-basics feel. A white, country Christmas is like no other. There’s homespun, traditional events like Erin’s Window Wonderland, where retailers black-out store windows then unveil their seasonal decor. In Orangeville, everyone comes out for the Tractor Parade of Lights, and Christmas in the Park at Kay-Cee
Gardens features 50,000 bulbs and all kinds of choirs for a full month. A country setting also brings extra spookiness to Halloween. There are corn mazes all over, and Terra Cotta Conservation Area’s annual “Haunted Forest at Terror Cotta” features
flashlight strolls, haunted houses and other shadowy fun. Lots of farms and centres, like Downey’s Farm and Teen Ranch in Caledon hold Easter events, too. (The best way to never miss a thing is to sign up for our newsletter.)
Above all else, please get lost.
Because every backroad, every “there-can’t-be-anything-down-there” left turn will be where some of your most authentic and unplanned moments will just happen. Like a sheep or cow who’s decided to go for a stroll appearing out of nowhere. Foxes and turtles crossing the road at their own speeds. A rainbow over a barn. A box of vegetables picked hours ago with a pay-what-you-feel bucket. And you’ll always run into someone who’ll help you find your way back. That is, if you want to.
