I wish I could give higher rating here but this trip made me very upset. I grew up in Burlington, so I have been coming to this area since I was a kid. I did Webster falls - Tews Falls - Dundas Peak with my parents and friends countless number of times. When my BF surprised me with Niagara Falls weekend, we decided to stop by at Dundas and go hiking there. I haven't been in the area for years, so I obviously wanted to come to see this place. I was shocked! First, the place that was always free now costs $30 per couple to visit and only by advanced reservation. You pay $10 reservation, plus $10 park, plus $10 per hike. All non refundable and they give you a 2 hours time slot. All this for a one-hour hike of less than 3 km. To make matters worse, the Webster Falls access is blocked by fences and you have to pay another $30 to visit the falls. Plus you cannot even go down the stairs to see the Webster Falls waterfall from the bottom... This all was free before and there was a trail connecting both area (they are less than 1km away). This is just a pure money grab by HCA and they use Covid as an excuse to justify this. They also erected huge fence in Dundas Peak area, it looks ugly and blocks the view. Surprisingly, they posted security guards every 500m of the trail - seriously, is there any logical explanation for this? They now blocked access to Spenser Gorge areas from the Bruce trail, so that people wouldn't hike there for free from other access point on Bruce trail. Finally, when you get to the peak, right below you is a new industrial area - the last thing I want to see when hiking in nature.
I encourage everyone to boycott this money grab by HCA, there are many nice areas to hike around (e.g. Dundas Valley Conservation Area where you pay $5 per parking and can hike for hours, see nicer waterfalls, etc) . read more