No spacesuit required: Explore Ontario's Mars-like badlands
If you live in southern Ontario, you don't have to travel far to be transported to another world.
Caldeon's famous Cheltenham Badlands, which formed at the base of an ancient sea 450 million years ago, reopens for the season on May 9, 2025.
Autumn at the Cheltenham Badlands.
Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/7Cu4zgqEwz
— @syncros.bsky.social (@syncros) October 23, 2024
Easily identifiable by rolling red rocks, the badlands could easily pass for a Martian landscape -- but the natural heritage site was formed here on Earth, over many years, with the help of the weather.
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The land was once used by Ancestors of the Mississaugas of the Credit for hunting, fishing, and foraging.
To help the Trust further protect the Cheltenham Badlands, please stay on the designated trails and not walk on the Queenston Shale, which, while beautiful, is also delicate. Walking in any unmarked area is considered prohibited.
Learn more: https://t.co/tjdgYRCcXN pic.twitter.com/UlUcXAuuVq
— Ontario Heritage Trust (@ONheritage) August 2, 2024
Between 1850 and 1950, European settlers started clearing the trees and establishing farmland that caused the topsoil to erode, exposing the Queenston shale underneath. This, plus further erosion from snow melt, gave the 36-acre landscape its signature look.
Visitors can check out the badlands on designated trails from dawn to dusk, but reservations are required. In the past, people could walk directly on the terrain, but that has since been prohibited in an effort to preserve the environment.
Learn more about one of Ontario's most iconic sites at the Ontario Heritage Trust website.
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