Featuring rust red undulating topography, the Cheltenham Badlands is part of an area designated as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, and it plays a vital role in geographical conservation. It is a series of bare, windswept red hills and gullies in southern Ontario that formed due to overgrazing. In the 1930s, the area was still productive farmlands, but poor farming practices resulted in the creation of the rolling Martian landscape.

It is located at Caledon, about an hour away from Toronto and Mississauga and north of Brampton, on the Old Baseline Road.

The area was once fertile farmland as the settlers grew various crops, but the farming practices caused the erosion of shallow topsoil, exposing the underlying Queenston Shale. The changing seasons further accelerated the erosion of the shale, resulting in this unique landscape.

The Cheltenham Badlands is a landscape of rolling red rock made up of highly eroded and exposed Queenston Shale. The red hills were slowly revealed as the elements wore away the vegetation over the years. The bright red color is due to a high concentration of iron oxide, while the greenish streaks are a result of groundwater oxidizing the red rock.

The shale has now eroded into a series of hummocks and gullies, producing the distinctive landscape.  The striking landscape of the Cheltenham Badlands is one of Ontario’s geological treasures and is one of the best examples of Badland topography in the province.  As the shale supports little or no vegetation, it has left the area as barren badlands. The exposed geological processes displayed by the Badlands makes it a popular educational site for geology enthusiasts and tourists alike.

Earlier, this distinctive landscape was open fully, allowing visitors to walk over the formation. This resulted in accelerated erosion of the sensitive red shale surface and caused permanent changes to the Badland’s unique appearance.  To protect the Badlands from further erosion, the site was in 2015 and developed a boardwalk that closed off physical access to the Badlands by 2018.