The Cheltenham Badlands are rolling humps of red shale, about the strangest ground in southern Ontario. A guide walks you round and explains how it got that way. Then the bus carries on to Albion Orchards in Caledon, where your admission is already paid for, on the Monday of Thanksgiving weekend.
Pick your date below. The bus leaves from 34 Asquith Avenue, just north of Yonge and Bloor.
Cancel 14 or more days before you go and you get 90% back.
A Parkbus guide leads the group all day, so you do not need to know the trail.
A short, flat walk on even ground, at your own pace.
A guided walk in the morning, an orchard in the afternoon, and the coach does the rest.
We pick you up
Just north of Yonge and Bloor subway station. Come up the Asquith exit and look for the coach.
They are not supposed to be there. The rock is Queenston shale, laid down at the bottom of a sea about 450 million years ago and then buried under topsoil for the rest of its life. Settlers cleared the trees off this slope to farm it, between about 1850 and 1950, the thin soil washed away, and what was underneath came out into the daylight. It is red because of the iron in it, and banded green where groundwater has changed that iron. Thirty six hectares of it, owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust since 2002 and run by them outright since 2024. Your ActiveDays leader walks you round and explains all of it, including why there is now a boardwalk: the site was closed completely in 2015 because visitors were wearing the shale away, and reopened in 2018 with sixty metres of walkway to look from instead.
Good to know:
Twenty minutes down the road, a family orchard on Innis Lake Road in Caledon that runs from late August to just before Christmas. Here is the part worth knowing: anybody can walk into the farm store, but going out onto the grounds costs money, and that is where the trees are. On this trip it is already paid, so you get off the bus and go straight out into the rows. October is late apple season, so what is left on the trees is the keeping fruit: Honeycrisp, Cortland, Spartan, Empire, Mutsu, Granny Smith, Northern Spy and Ambrosia.
Good to know:
We drop you back
The bus returns to the same place it left from, so you go home the way you came.
This is our estimated return time, not a guarantee. Traffic can change it and some trips do run late, so please leave yourself some room afterwards rather than booking something tight against it.
An easy day. Not much kit needed.
Albion Orchards charges per person to go out onto the grounds, and anybody can walk into the farm store without paying. Your Parkbus ticket covers the grounds, so you can go straight out into the rows. Bags of pick your own apples are sold at the farm and are yours to buy or not.
It is the one rule at the Badlands and it is not fussiness. The site was closed completely in 2015 because feet were wearing the shale away, and it reopened in 2018 with a boardwalk instead. Stay on the boardwalk and the marked paths.
The orchard asks for this in writing. They are happy about dogs in principle and unhappy about what dogs leave in an orchard, which is fair enough.
Dates appear here when they open in the booking system.
Only one trip scheduled
October 12
This is the only date this season, so there is no second chance at it.
We're Canada's outdoor bus service. Since 2010 we've taken more than 300,000 people to parks and trails without a car. You bring a lunch. We handle everything with wheels.
Albion Orchards charges to walk the grounds. On this trip that is already paid, so you get off the bus and go in.
Queenston shale that formed on the floor of an ancient sea about 450 million years ago, now weathered into bare red hills.
How the hills got uncovered, why they are red and green, and what the conservation work is protecting them from.
The Badlands are an hour and a half out of the city, the car park is small, and on Thanksgiving Monday it will be full.
★★★★★ 4.6/5.0 on Google
“I just recently went on my first guided tour with a friend of mine from work. And man, was it amazing! Speaking from someone who doesn’t drive. This is a must!!”Linda Ann · Facebook · Jun 2024
I have always had excellent experiences with Parkbus. I have been to many of their destinations, and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. The ambassadors have been knowledgeable and friendly. The drivers drive safely, and with the passengers’ comfort in mind.Sharlene Haye · Google
Came with my friend in April, our guide Mike did a great job! Nice tour, small group, everything was great! Will go again!Natalia N. · Tripadvisor · Jul 2025
Cancel more than 14 days before departure and you get a 90% refund, with 10% withheld for payment processing. Inside 14 days refunds are not available, except for a medical emergency in the 48 hours before departure, which needs a signed doctor’s note within 14 days of the missed trip and returns 50%. Tickets are transferable: you can change the passenger name up to 48 hours before departure.
If Parkbus cancels a trip, you get a full refund. We decide no later than 48 hours before departure and only on confirmed conditions: the park closed or the park authority asking us to stand down, an evacuation order or alert, an area restriction order, the highway closed, or the trip judged unsafe to run. A forecast is not one of those things, and trips run rain or shine.
An easy day, and nobody has to drive it.
Not quite the right fit? These all leave from the same spot downtown.
