Brochure - Niagara Escarpment Commission

Niagara Escarpment
Explorer
Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment
A World Biosphere Reserve
Simcoe & Dufferin
Discover
Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment
What You’ll Find
Conservation Areas & Parks
Nottawasaga Lookout
Devil’s Glen Provincial Park
Noisy River Provincial Nature Reserve
Pine River Fishing Area
Mulmur Hills
Boyne Valley Provincial Park
Mono Cliffs Provincial Park
Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve
Humber Valley
Mono Mills Lowlands
in Simcoe & Dufferin
Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment
The Simcoe-Dufferin section of the Niagara Escarpment
is unusual. The Escarpment’s familiar rocky heights are
often nowhere in sight! the dramatic cliffscapes that one
finds to the north and south are buried under deep glacial
deposits in this area, prompting geologists to refer to this
section as “the buried Escarpment.”
It may be buried, but ironically, the Escarpment reaches its
highest elevation in the Simcoe-Dufferin section. Magnificent vistas out over the Nottawasaga Highlands and the
Dufferin hills are major attractions in this area.
Interspersed with the highlands are deep river valleys. The
Nottawasaga River and its tributaries - the Pine, the Mad,
the Noisy and the Boyne - all cut through the glacial deposits, creating a landscape intersected frequently with
steep, narrow, wooded valleys. Villages sprang up in these
valleys in the past, taking advantage of the fast-moving
water to run grist mills, saw mills, and electrical power stations. Most are now just tiny hamlets or even ghost towns.
They’re fascinating places to explore, conjuring up images
of what Ontario was like 100 years ago.
Many of the public properties in the Simcoe-Dufferin section are resource management, rather than recreational
areas, and offer minimal facilities. Though not always
easily accessible by car, they are all accessible on foot.
The Bruce Trail provides some of the best access to this
section of the Escarpment.
If day-tripping by car is more your style, you can pull over
to enjoy the views, visit the region’s picturesque hamlets,
villages and artists’ studios, browse through antique, craft
and pottery shops and enjoy fabulous restaurants featuring
locally-grown foods.
The Simcoe-Dufferin area offers a different type of Escarpment experience. Remarkable vistas over miles of rolling
countryside. Small, rushing rivers set in intimate valleys in
history. Textbook examples from the age of the glaciers.
Often the only evidence of the Escarpment is the soft, easily-recognized clay of the Queenston shale, visible at roadcuts or where rivers have eroded through the sediments to
expose the Escarpment rock formation.
1. Nottawasaga Lookout Provincial Park
A well-worn trail takes you out to Nottawasaga Lookout
and the Singhampton Caves. These are crevice caves:
deep, narrow fissures that are open to the sky.
They were created when huge blocks broke away from the
cliff face. Mossess and liverworts create a moist green carpet on the cave walls, and 27 species of ferns have been
recorded here. The caves are easily accessible to anyone
wearing running shoes or hiking boots!
Nottawasaga Lookout presents a commanding view of
Blue Mountain to the north, and of Georgian Bay and
Christian Island. With its mature deciduous forests, including a row of venerable, old maples along the path into the
caves, this spot is especially beautiful in the fall.
To get to Nottawasaga Lookout, take Highway 124 north
into Singhampton. Where the highway turns off to the
east in the village, continue straight north to the end of
the road. There is parking for a few cars where the road
ends. The caves are .4 km north along the blue-blazed
Bruce Trail side trail that continues in the same direction as
the road that brought you here. (If the parking spots are
taken, turn left on the unpaved road, and take the next two
rights into another small parking lot. )
Just north of Singhampton, on the way to Nottawasaga
Lookout is the highest point on the Niagara Escarpment.
Near Edward Lake, the elevation is 544 metres above sea
level.
2. Glen Huron, Dunedin and Creemore
Near Nottawasaga Lookout ther eare three small towns
worth visiting. Glen Huron has a historic, water-powered
feed mill and a beautiful setting on the Mad River. Dunedin, located nearby on the Noisy River, has an operating
forge and an artist’s studio. Creemore is an elegant old
town with beautiful architecture and tree-lined streets. It
is home to the Creemore Springs Brewery and fine restaurants.
3. Mono Cliffs Provincial Park
Mono Cliffs Provincial Park is one place in Simcoe-Dufferin where the Niagara Escarpment does put in a dramatic
appearance. The dominat features of the park are three
Escarpment outcrops known as the Mono Rocks. Their
sheer, dolostone cliffs, fractured by crevice caves and fissures, rise above the surrounding glacial drift. Two of the
hills are outliers; they were once part of the Escarpment,
but became separated from it through millions of years of
erosion.
...a World Biosphere Reserve
The Violet Hill Meltwater Discharge Channel furthered
the erosion when it thundered through the park around
15,000 years ago, carrying a torrent of glacial meltwater.
The Violet Hill Meltwater Discharge Channel was a major
influence on the landscape in the Simcoe-Dufferin section
of the Escarpment. Noted Escarpment geologist Walter
Tovell suggested that this post-glacial river deserves special status as a “Pleistocene Heritage River.”
After the ice (and the meltwaters) receded around 10,000
years ago, Mono Cliffs Provincial Park was a boreal forest
of jack pine and balsam fir, inhabited by mammals that
today live nowhere near Dufferin County.
In 1990, scientists found the bones of a pika, a small rabbit-like mammal, in a cave in the park. Today, pikas live in
high elevation slopes of the Rocky Mountains. But around
8,670 years ago, soon after the glaciers disappeared from
southern Ontario, they lived along the Escarpment.
banks of the Nottawasaga River near the village of Glen
Cross.
Kames are another interesting glacial feature to look for
in this area. Kames are symmetrical cone-shaped hills
that formed when glacial meltwaters dumped their loads
of sand, gravel and silt into piles. Watch for a gruop of
these small hills on the north side of Hockley Valley Road,
about 1 km west of Glen Cross. If you enjoy downhil skiing or golf, you may want to visit the Hockley Valley Resort
and Conference Centre, located just south of the Hockley
Line on the 3rd Line East.
Hockley Village is a little town that time seems to have
passed by. The village’s original general store dated to
1837, but a new structure carries on the general store
tradition on this picturesque street.
Though Mono Cliffs is a relatively small park (750 hectares), its botanical wealth has made it a haven for researchers. The park is a study site for old-growth eastern
white cedars that grow along the Escarpment. It also has
46 species of ferns, making it one of the richest fern sites
in Ontario.
4. Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve
The 400-hectare Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve
is not developed for recreational uses other than hiking.
But the Bruce Trail and other trails through the property
offer some spectacular scenery through hardwood forests, into deep valleys, and across countless creeks and
streams. There’s a long loop that takes five hours, and a
short loop that can be hiked in just two hours.
To get to Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve, take
HIghway 10 north of Orangeville and turn east on Hockley
Valley Road. Park in the small lot on the south side of the
Hockley Valley Road at the Second Line EHS Mono, and
take the trails into the park from there.
After the hike, you can tour the 15 kilometre-long Hockley
Valley by car. The Hockley Valley cuts through both glacial
drift and the bedrock of the Niagara Escarpment. The
Nottawasaga River runs through the valley. Watch for outcrops of red Queenston shale in the road cuts, and in the
Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment
5. Devil’s Glen Provincial Park
This tiny (61 hetare) park located between Singhampton
and Glen Huron includes steep-sided bedrock gorge that
was carved into the Escarpment by the Mad River.
The Mad River trail (a side branch of the Bruce Trail) goes
down into the picturesque gorge. Hikers descend through
a cedar forest with some very large trees, which gives way
to a deciduous forest in the lower reaches of the valley.
All along this trail, the red clay of the Queenston shale is
strongly in evidence.
The trail ends at the Mad River, a babbling, shallow stream
overhung with cedars, its banks lined with ostrich ferns.
Several rare ferns, including Hart’s-tongue fern, smooth
cliffbrake fern, northern holly and green spleenwort, grow
further up the slopes.
A tributary of the larger Nottawasaga, the Mad River is a
cold stream which provides ideal habitat for brook trout.
Ruskview
Ruskview, a crossroads hamlet high in the Mulmur Hills, is
the most scenic of the Escarpment’s ghost towns. It earned
this reputation because of its spectacular lnog views down
over the Pine River Valley. If you are touring by car, pull
over at Ruskview and enjoy one of the Escarpment’s least
known but most magnificent vistas.
To get to Ruskview, take Hwy. 124 north from Hornings
Mills. At Redickville, go east on County Road 21 to
Ruskview.
6. Pine River Fishing Area
At the Pine River Fishing Area, there is a large pond for
fishing ont he main river and two artificial ponds along the
side of the river. Make sure you have an Ontario fishing
licence before trying your luck. The season runs from the
last Saturday in April to the end of October.
To get to the Pine River Fishing Area, take Dufferin Road
14 off Highway 124. You will enter the village of Hornings Mills. Stop and read the historic plaque in this small
village that seems to breathe history. Turn right on River
Road. The parking area is on the left. If you are coming
from the south, take Highway 10 north to Highway 89,
continue north through the stop lights on 1st Line Mulmur
WHS or Prince of Wales Road. Then turn right onto River
Road. Parking is on the left.
A century ago, Hornings Mills was a supply centre for the
surrounding area, and over 300 people lived here. Endless supplies of logs from the surroundign forests kept the
sawmill busy. The remains of the sawmill can still be seen
on the banks of the fast-flowing Pine River where it runs
through the village. Hornings Mills also had an electrical
generating station on the Pine River. At one time, electricity from Hornings Mills powered the towns of Shelburne
and Orangeville.
The Bruce Trail
The Bruce Trail, Canada’s oldest and longest continuous
footpath, extends 850 km along the length of the Escarpment from Queenston to Tobermory. The Bruce Trail Conservancy works to preserve public access to the Niagara
Escarpment while restoring its natural habitat.
Bruce Trail Conservancy:
Phone 1-800-665-HIKE
Web: www.brucetrail.org
The Niagara Escarpment Commission
Since 1973, the Niagara Escarpment Commission has
worked with government, business, non-profit organizations, land managers, land owners and others to conserve
Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment as a continuous natural
environment and scenic, working countryside.
The Commission administers the Niagara Escarpment
Plan, Canada’s first large-scale environmental plan. In
recognition of the Escarpment’s special environment and
people’s efforts to protect it through the Niagara Escarpment Plan and other means, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
named Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment a World Biosphere
Reserve in 1990.
Biosphere Reserves demonstrate that ecology, economy
and a good life can exist together, each a part of the other.
Niagara Escarpment Commission:
Phone: (905) 877-5191
Web: www.escarpment.org
...a World Biosphere Reserve
Parks and Conservation Areas of Simcoe-Dufferin
Nottawasaga Lookout
Devil’s Glen Provincial Park
Noisy River Provincial Nature Reserve
Pine River Fishing Area
Mulmur Hills
Boyne Valley Provincial Park
Mono Cliffs Provincial Park
Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve
Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment