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River

Maitland River

Class

Step

Size

Small

Visitability

Average

Accessibility

Admission Collected

Activity

Walk Time

10min

Trail

Moderate

Gorge Access

Moderate

Other Trails

County

Huron

From London, drive north on Hwy 4 for about 1.5 hours to Hwy 8 at Clinton. Turn left and drive for 13 km to Huron Rd 1 (Benmiller Line). Turn right and follow this road to Huron Rd 15. Turn left and follow the signs for the Falls Reserve Conservation Area.

Settlement

Goderich

NTS Map

40P/12

Easting

448038

Northing

4839916

UTM Zone

Falls Reserve is a series of very low, wide steps across the Maitland River. Each step is no more than about a meter high, and 30-50 m wide. You don't find one "main" waterfall here, but it's the overall experience of hiking/wading/swimming in the river. If you are looking for "waterfalls" don't go out of your way to visit this one. However, if you live in extreme western Ontario where waterfall opportunities are really limited to Rock Glen, this gives you the chance to see water rushing over bedrock, without having to drive for 5 hours.

The admission to the conservation area (where most of the steps are located) is about $8 per car.

If you don't want to pay the conservation area fee, you can also see some of the steps by continuing towards Goderich on Hwy 8, but then turning right on Mill Rd, just before entering the town. Follow this road around the bend and down the narrow hill to the little gravel parking lot. Walk down the hill for about a minute or so until you see a path heading to the left towards the river. Follow this path to the river, and then walk upstream (right) until you reach a few small steps. The river is wide, and the bedrock stream bed is actually quite interesting, but these waterfalls are very low, even smaller than those in the conservation area.

NOTE: There is a bedrock river reach at the nearby Benmiller Inn on Benmiller Line, but I didn't see any waterfalls or major rapids in the area.