Fall Fairs and the Colour of Fall in the Toronto Area

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Fall Fairs and the Colour of Fall in the Toronto Area

Well I turned my back for one minute and summer is gone and now in its place we have Autumn. As the #Toronto CNE and the Cronut Burger fade into memories it is time for the small town fairs to set up shop. First the RVs and trailers come in with some of the bigger rides and then slowly the fairground starts to take shape. Tents with row upon row of stuffed animals wait to draw visitors into their seductive trap, while food so shockingly bad for you is served to the willing after waiting in long lineups.

Before you know it the bright colourful lights get turned on, the rides get checked out and on opening night calls for games of chance with blaring music and loud sirens fill the cold night air. The Acton Agricultural Society Fall Fair is this weekend - September 13-15, 2013, and it is the 100th year of the fair. You can find fairs in the Greater Toronto Area on the OntarioFairs web site.

Along with fair season comes the ever popular search for brilliant fall foliage colours. Central Ontario has a reported 10% change in colours while southern Ontario still has no significant changes - you can see just a small smackle of colour here and there driving around Toronto. The end of September and into early October is usually the peak colour change.

Blue Mountain Resort

You can drive north early in the season up through Orangeville (the Badlands) and into the Collingwood area for some great vistas. Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood provides a great lookout from the Niagara Escarpment to view the waters of Georgian Bay. You can also take a hike on trails and take the ski/bike lift down to the resort area and enjoy some fine shopping and dining before the ski hills go white with winter snow.

Fall in the Badlands

Later the Toronto area will show their colours - check out the Scarborough Bluffs, High Park and the Don Valley.

One of the best ways to enjoy fall is to get hiking through river valleys until you come across a waterfall. Framed in bright reds, yellows and orange and with green leaves remaining to provide the contrast you can get some beautiful pictures of the water falling onto broken rocks before gliding down small streams.

Ontario - Yours to Discover, has recommendations for drives throughout the province into areas like the Hills of the Headwaters, the Grey-Bruce Escarpment and the Wine Route in Niagara. You can find them here.