Chetlenham Badlands - Photographic Destinations in Ontario

Cheltenham Badlands is a small example of Badlands formation in Caledon, Ontario.
The site is located on the southside of Old Base Line Road (between Ontario Highway 10 and Creditview Road/Peel Regional Road 12) and features exposed and eroded Queenston Shale. The formation is located along the Niagara Escarpment.

“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 this 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 this 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. The relatively soft shale is essentially clay and is easily eroded by water. This site was acquired by the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 2000 and is under the care of the Bruce Trail Association.

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The Badlands, near the villages of Inglewood and Cheltenham Ontario, are an Earth Science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI), managed by the Bruce Trail Conservancy. In order to protect the sensitive environment of this site from degradation, visitors are requested to comply with the following: no sliding or digging, stay on the flat area in the vicinity of the interpretative signs, stay off the trail during wet conditions, no tobogganing, no motorized vehicles, no bicycles, no horses and please, do not litter. The Side Trail is closed due to erosion. Take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but your thanks.