Cheltenham Badlands and Terra Cotta Park

What a fascinating day we've had - with excellent weather too! We had a trip out into rural Ontario, the main reason for which was to visit the Cheltenham Badlands shown in the main blip. What you can see here is an area of exposed Queenston Shale containing thin layers of siltstone and sandstone - formed about 450 million years ago when much of the northern hemisphere was under water. The green-grey streaks are formed by groundwater circulating through openings in the shale: the concentration of more acidic groundwater can create oxygen-poor conditions which cause the red iron oxide to turn green.

As you can see, the fall colours are developing nicely now, with the maples in particular turning a gorgeous red (seen best in the first extra). Other leaves are also turning red (second extra).

Visits to the Badlands are strictly limited to specific booked slots 90 minutes long, as previous to 2015 tourists were allowed to roam freely, contributing to erosion, overcrowding and dangerous roadside parking. So we also visited the nearby Terra Cotta Park which had walking trails with beautiful views (third extra) - and we even saw a garter snake lurking by the path (fourth extra): Granddog Oona spotted it first, fortunately she was on a lead!