Autumn stays
The best colour in Ontario, seen from indoors.
The Beaver Valley turns in the first week of October and the house looks straight at it. Big glass, three fires, radiant floors, and a hot tub on the roof for when it drops below freezing.
Check availabilityWhy here, in October
A valley that turns, and a wall of glass facing it.
Most autumn trips in Ontario involve driving to the colour. You park at a lookout with everybody else, take the photograph, and drive back to wherever you are staying, which is usually in trees and cannot see out.
This house is the other way round. It sits high on open ground with nothing in front of it, and the outlook takes in Georgian Bay, the Beaver Valley and the escarpment at Georgian Peaks. In October that is the view from the kitchen island while somebody makes coffee.
The other half of it is that October here is genuinely cold, and this is a house built for cold. Radiant heat in the floors rather than blown air, eighteen-foot ceilings with the glass to match, fires inside, and a fire bowl and a hot tub on the roof for the part of the evening when you can see your breath.
Timing it
How to catch the colour without gambling the trip.
Aim for the first ten days of October
That is the most reliable window on the escarpment in most years. Late September is often still green at valley level; the third week of October is usually past it.Take midweek if you can
Peak-colour weekends draw visitors from across the province. Midweek you get the same trees, an empty trail and a table wherever you want one. It is also the cheapest week of the season here.Book before the colour is announced
By the time the reports say the valley has turned, the good weeks are gone. Autumn books earlier than people expect.Have a wet-weather plan
October on Georgian Bay does what it likes. Scenic Caves, the Scandinave spa near Blue Mountain, the cider houses and the Collingwood main street all work in rain, and the house is a good place to be stuck.
What autumn is for
Apples, trails and long evenings.
- The Bruce Trail along the valley
- The rim trails are at their best in October — the hardwood turns below you rather than above you. Trailheads within about twenty minutes, from an easy hour on the flat to a real climb.
- Old Baldy and the lookouts
- The lookout above Kimberley is the view everybody photographs, and the road down into the valley from the north is the most scenic ten minutes of driving in the region.
- Apple and cider harvest
- This is apple country, and autumn is the harvest. Farm gates and cideries run along the top of the escarpment between Thornbury and Meaford, most of them seasonal and most at their best now.
- The Georgian Trail
- Thirty-four flat kilometres of old railway between Collingwood and Meaford. Cycling it in October, through the orchards with the bay on one side, is the best ride of the year here.
- The evening
- This is the real argument. Dark by seven, cold by eight, and a rooftop with a fire bowl and a hot tub. Summer has the light; autumn has the evenings.
Want a week while the valley turns?
Tell us roughly when you are thinking and how many of you there are. Autumn books earlier than people expect, and midweek in October is the best value of the year here.
Keep reading
- The Beaver ValleyThe valley the colour happens in, and what is down there: the trail, the falls, Kimberley.
- The wider regionGeorgian Bay, Grey County and the towns, season by season.
- Ski and winter staysWhat happens here once the colour has gone and the snow arrives.
- Rates and how we quoteWhy a peak-colour weekend and an October midweek are not close.
Colour timing varies every year and nobody can promise a peak weekend in advance. Ontario Parks publishes a fall colour report through the season. See what we ask of guests before you book.