Not sure how a park is listed as "shopping" on Yelp. Okay then.
There are ways to skimp out on the parking fee. We ended up at the South End of Dundas Valley, near Canterbury Falls and parked the car off the road and voila. No paying for parking, although it does seem like Hamilton is capitalizing on a conservation area. Also, it helps that we went while the park and hiking season was off-peak.
I really like the area a lot, although it wasn't the best trail that I've been on. A lot of the trails just makes small loops. If you have a couple of hours, you can tackle most of the them. My favorite trail was the one where we ended up near a storage shed in the middle of the woods. I couldn't give you the exact trail that's on (with some exploration, you'll find it as well). In the dead of winter, this area is very creepy. The trees are bare and the branches are curled down (think about how the trees looked in Pan's Labyrinth and you have the idea) and the trail leads downward to this storage shed and eventually, to a pine forest, which is dark and ominous-looking.
It feels like something pulled out of Alice in Wonderland. If you look behind you on the trail, the path winds upward. With the lack of light in the winter, it gives off a magical and haunting vibe. Be weary of a talking rabbit telling you how late he is, and don't follow him to the shed or else you'll drop into the abyss.
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