Owen Sound

• Departing Guelph next morning, we stopped to view the Elora Gorge near the town of that name. The gorge walls drop some 80 feet into the Grand River:
  

  

  In the town of Elora is one of the few remaining early Ontario grist mills still in existence, the Elora Mill:
  

  

  Today, this five-story building houses an upscale inn and two restaurants.
  
  Beyond the attractive town of Fergus, the flat farmland gave way to rolling hills with wooded areas decked out in fall colors. We arrived at our Owen Sound motel early enough to take a long, quiet, afternoon walk along the harbor:
  

  

  

  That body of water in the distance is Georgian Bay, a part of Lake Huron.
  
  Another day in Owen Sound allowed us to explore Harrison Park. There we learned that this town claimed to be the last stop on the Underground Railway for American slaves. We read that an estimated 100,000 escaped to Canada between 1830 and 1865!
  
  Driving to the town’s Arboretum, we left our car and headed for Inglis Falls --- the hard way. The difficult mile and a half stretch of the Bruce Trail we hiked had plenty of rocks and roots, elevation changes and two detours. By the time we arrived at the falls, we would have been satisfied with a trickle:
  

  

  The falls, though, were pretty enough. Still, rather than retracing our steps, we happily returned to our car by following the road.