Road map Barrie city surrounding area (Ontario, Canada)

With its rough terrain and lack of large water bodies,  Dufferin County was one of the last areas of southern Ontario to be  settled. "The Roof of Ontario," or Niagara Escarpment, forms a dividing  line through the county with the western part covered by gently rolling  plains, ideally suited for agriculture. Simcoe County is dominated by  Barrie and the Highway 400 corridor, the route to cottage country from  Toronto. Here you can stay at a luxury resort or rent a basic beach  cabin, shop for antiques in small towns or hit major malls, golf on a  variety of courses or fish for lake trout, pike, or bass.       

Alliston [D6] Nestled in the rich agricultural Nottawasaga  Valley is Alliston, the "potato capital of Ontario," which holds an  annual potato festival in August. One of the town's most famous native  sons is Sir Frederick Banting, the codiscoverer of insulin. The  Nottawasaga Inn is a top-ranked resort offering golf, swimming, fitness  center, and full-service spa. (Э Southwest of Alliston on Hwy 89 is the  Dufferin County Museum and Archives, built in the style of an Ontario  bank barn. The silo functions as an art gallery space and contains a  spiral staircase salvaged from the local Orangeville Jail (c. 1880).  From the top floor of the silo there is a magnificent view of the Mulmur  Hills and the Niagara Escarpment.       

Barrie [A7] Located in the heart of the Georgian Lakelands  area, Barrie was once a military post and an important fur-trading link  between Lake Ontario and the upper Great Lakes. Kempenfest, Barrie's  annual waterfront festival, has over 300 artisans displaying their works  the first weekend in August. There is harness racing at Barrie Raceway,  while the MacLaren Art Centre hosts regional, national, and  international exhibitions in the visual arts.            

From the downtown City Dock you can take the Serendipity  Princess, a 265-passenger paddle wheeler, on a sightseeing cruise of  Kempenfelt Bay's sparkling waters.       

Borden [B6] The Borden Military Museum at Canadian Forces Base  Borden has several heritage buildings, a memorial park, and a  collection of over 9,500 artifacts, weapons, uniforms, military  vehicles, aircraft, and mementoes. Camp Borden was established in 1916,  and half of all Canadian soldiers who served in both world wars were  trained here.       

Midhurst [A7] The Simcoe County Museum charts local  development from prehistoric times to the present. There are displays  and artifacts from Native cultures-including an 1834 long-house-antique  machinery, and a 19th-century Victorian village street, complete with  store, toy shop, and undertaker's parlor. Nearby Springwater Provincial  Park provides picnic shelters, children's play areas, wildlife displays,  and hiking and skiing trails.       

Shelburne [D4] This quiet town becomes "Fiddleville" every  August when it hosts the Canadian Open Fiddle Championship. The local  population swells by more than 10,000 over the three days as fans and  contestants attend the largest fiddle contest in North America.       

Tottenham [E6] The South Simcoe Railway offers open-window  coach rides through the Beeton Creek valley, powered by steam  locomotives dating from 1883 and 1912.       

SPECIAL INTEREST       

The Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve       

The Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve encompasses 190,000  hectares between the Niagara River and the tip of the Bruce Peninsula,  and protects several key areas along the Niagara Escarpment with natural  geomor-phological features that are vulnerable and easily damaged. At  Duncan Crevice Caves Provincial Nature Reserve [A2], seasonal extremes  in temperature and the forces of gravity have caused large blocks of  rock to break away from the face of the Niagara Escarpment. The gradual  shifting downward of these huge blocks has produced large caves.       

At Pretty River Valley Provincial Park [A3], the land bears  the marks of a retreating glacier-meltwater channels, moraine, outwash,  and till. The escarpment geology highlights several good crevice caves.       

Mono Cliffs Provincial Park [E4-E5] contains crevice caves, an  upland limestone plain, and talus slopes. The park features two  prominent masses of rock, separated by erosion from the main rock body,  called outliers. Botanists have noted that the local vegetation includes  a rich diversity of ferns.       

At the Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve [E5], the  Nottawasaga River cuts a picturesque gorge across the escarpment.  Forested moraines and open meadows lie upstream, and swamp and  bottomland forest spread across the valley floor, stretching for several  kilometers.