Discovering Hilton Falls in the Winter Time

The first time I hiked Hilton Falls a few winters ago I was not a fan. The many trails (which, at the time, I found poorly marked) intertwine with the Bruce Trail, which is an almost 900 km long trail that runs across Ontario. My sister and I ended up on it; we got lost. I do agree that sometimes getting lost is half of the adventure, but with the sun setting and the winter winds howling, this was not the time for such an adventure.About a month ago, however, I decided I would go back and see if there was some winter magic hiding in the trails that I missed at Hilton Falls. As it turns out, there is a lot of magic there that is better because it isn’t marked.Once we walked up the main trail into the forest away from the parking lot, we reached a fork in the trail. A trail map stood on the side. All sorts of different color-marked trails wound off from where we were standing. After commenting on how we were probably going to get lost like last time based on this trail map, we decided to take the simplest route towards what appeared to be a small lake on the map. Worst case, this trail looked like it would lead us in an exact loop around the lake back to where we were standing (as long as we followed the red markers and stayed away from the Bruce Trail’s blue ones). We embarked in the direction of the red trail markers.After a few minutes, we reached a clearing that overlooked a large cliff. Beneath the cliff, a large, slim, frozen lake carved between the trees. Snow swept across the ice. My eyes gaped. We stopped and stared at it. Who the hell knew Hilton Falls had such a large lake in the middle of the forest? Who the hell knew it was located at the bottom of a one hundred foot cliff?After we took some pictures of the lake, we continued down the trail, climbed over the bright green, moss-covered boulders and weaved through the tall pine trees. Running water roared in the distance. I turned to my sister.“There’s no way we’re at the waterfall. It’s not even on this trail,” I said, “unless there’s another waterfall that’s not marked on the trail.”She shrugged. I pondered for a moment. There was no way water could be running in such a cold temperature unless it was moving quickly towards a waterfall. We walked towards the noise.When we reached the point where our trail met up with the main trail, we found a river. The river ran beneath the main trail, quickened into rapids, roared off the edge of the cliff and slammed into the frozen lake. I gaped. My sister and I looked at each other. After a moment, we walked along the side of the river, crept across the frozen snow and ice overhanging the water and crouched where the water started to move down towards the cliff. The unmarked waterfall offered a complete view of the lake, the forest and cliffs around it, and the ski hill far in the distance. We sat beside the rapids for a while. Water rushed past my feet. A winter breeze howled into the open gorge below.We continued on the main trail until we reach another trail map. We decided to follow the exact trail towards the main waterfall and then head back to the car so that we didn’t risk getting lost again, as the sun was creeping towards the horizon.As we approached the waterfalls, water roared again in the distance, people walked ahead of us (this made me more confidant that we wouldn’t get lost again), and smoke faded into the trees. A campfire churned at the top of the falls. A family and a few other people sat around it. As we walked by the fire, a man stood beside his girlfriend, laughed and held out his hand towards the sky. I frowned, as his girlfriend snapped photos of him on her iPhone. What the hell is she doing? A moment later, a bird dipped from the trees, pecked his palm and snatched birdseed. His girlfriend’s iPhone clicked. The bird flew back into the tree. I noticed birdseed scattered around the ground. Not only was Hilton Falls hiding a secret waterfall and large, cliff-based lake, there was also human-friendly bird species here that was ready to make an avid Instagrammers photo dreams come true.My sister and I climbed down the metal staircase towards the falls, landed on the platform and glanced over the railing. The waterfall raged over the cliff. A large cliff wall stood above it. Jungle-like vines and trees draped over the water and cliff edge, as water fell towards the snow and ice-covered river.“It’s like a snow jungle in Southern Ontario,” I said. My sister nodded.Who knew such an exotic looking place existed so close to Toronto. I could only imagine what this place would look like in the summer. If there was a bit of humidity and some birdcalls from those friendly birdseed-plucking birds you’d think you were in Costa Rica. We gazed at the waterfall for a while, and then walked back towards the main path and headed for the car.So, long story short, we didn’t get lost this time around, but we discovered that Hilton Falls not only boasts an incredible, jungle-like waterfall, but also offers many other unadvertised natural elements that are worth looking at. There are still a few trails there that we didn’t walk down, so I will definitely be going back when the weather gets a bit warmer to check them out. Who knows, if the trails we went down had that many exciting and beautiful elements, I’m sure getting lost down the Bruce Trail again would uncover a few other magical, unadvertised places.For more information about Hilton Falls, check out Conservation Halton's website. For more content like this, follow me here.