Webwood Falls Nature Reserve

Next up on our little tour of the Grey County waterfalls, the most easily reached waterfalls of the lot: Webwood Falls.

This one is only about 15 minutes from where we were camping at the time (Meaford Memorial Park, RIGHT on Georgian Bay!), and a short drive from Walter's Falls, which we’d visited immediately before this one, on our little Sunday afternoon adventure.

(Note: This one isn’t far from Eugenia Falls Conservation Area andHogg's Falls, which we’d visited the day before and posted last week. All are down Grey County Rd 7.)

This was our first time visiting these falls, which are part of the Webwood Falls Nature Reserve.

With very little, fairly vague, and sometimes contradictory information available online, we weren’t entirely sure what to expect.

Would we be treated to some amazing views, or would it be a dud?

It ended up being a fun little stop on little tour of Ontario’s waterfalls, let us tell you all about it!

The Basics:

Location Name: Webwood Falls Nature Reserve
Address: Sideroad 25, Kimberley, ON N0C 1G0
Website: Visit Grey County
Price: Free!
Reservations: Not applicable.

Logistics

This one is really straightforward - park and walk. No maps, no signage, no tickets or reservations. Not much to talk about, logistically speaking.

The parking lot is not far east of Grey County Road 7, and is SUPER easy to miss.

After the side road veers left, keep an eye out to your right. If you pass the guard rails, you’ve gone too far - the small driveway is right before them.

Cellphone coverage was spotty, but we weren’t really there long enough for it to matter. Also, we were too busy swatting mosquitoes to be on the phone much!

On that note, ABSOLUTELY douse yourself with bug spray before visiting. They were *relentless*!

Accessibility

I’m going to say this park isn’t wheelchair accessible on the far side of the falls, and *probably* isn’t wheelchair accessible on parking lot side the side of the falls.

The trail is well packed, but I’m assuming it’s too narrow (in places) for a chair.

That said, the parking lot side is short and should be easy to handle with almost any other kind of mobility aid.

The other side - just up the road - would be a little more challenging in a boot or with a cane, but still doable.

Both trails are super short - the viewing platforms are probably 100 m from the road, both sides.

Pets

We’re not really sure if pets are allowed or not, we didn’t see any signage either way.

Washrooms

There are no washroom facilities at these falls.

That said, it’s a very short walk - you probably won’t be there long.

Miscellaneous

I bet this walk - and the falls - are gorgeous when the leaves change colour. We’ll have to come back to see it in all its fall splendour.

On that note, apparently there is no (official?) access to view the falls in the winter season.

That said, I’ve definitely seen some iced-over, winter photos of these falls. Maybe “No access” just means the trail isn’t maintained?

About Webwood Falls

Waterfalls of Ontario has Webwood Falls listed as a plunge waterfall, but - at least during our trip - it looked to be more of a true cascading waterfall.

The water was definitely breaking over the Manitoulin Dolostone formations in places.

I wonder if seasonality and water flow changes the waterfall type at all?

It seemed to be a small volume of water during our visit. If the flow of water was stronger, maybe it would miss the rocks, creating a single more significant drop?

I don’t know, really.

Whatever the designation, I bet it would be a spectacular waterfall after the spring thaw, or some heavy rain.

Anyway...

Walking in from the north side of the park, we saw what looked to be the remains of an old stone wall, but a lack of signage made it a bit more effort for us to learn about the historical significance of the falls.

As it turns out, the falls are part of what used to be mill, though I haven’t been able to find much more information than that.

The falls as a publicly accessible destination is a fairly recent thing. The property was donated to the Bruce Trail Conservancy in 2011, and viewing platform was added around 2016.

The Nature Reserve extends down the south side of the ravine, but we didn’t explore it - or any of the southern portion of the property, really - on account of getting eaten *alive* by the mosquitos.

From what I can tell, the base of the falls and getting down into the river valley is difficult, and either discouraged or outright prohibited.

Entertainment and Activity

Webwood Falls Nature Reserve is a small park, with little in the way of amenities or activities, but here’s some info on what there IS to do:

Hiking

So, you can look at the walk in one of two ways: As a standalone stop - maybe one of several on a day trip, as we did - or as part of a larger hike.

In terms of bigger picture hiking, two sections of the Bruce Trail pass through the reserve, on either side of the falls.

This is a MASSIVE trail that explores the Niagara Escarpment, right through the middle of Southern Ontario. It goes all the way from Niagara Falls, to the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.

(See the Bruce Trail Conservancy Website - or Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club - for more details).

A short bit of the Bruce Trail (Main Bruce Trail) overlaps with the park trail. This amounts to about 0.25 km of main trail, which enters and exits off different sections of Sideroad 25.

In addition, one of the side trails - Fairmount Side Trail, 3.4 km total length - runs through the south side of the park. Both access points are on Sideroad 25 on this side as well.

The section of Fairmount Side Trail running through the park is about 0.5 km long.

As a Local Walk

On its own, you’re looking at maybe 1 km tops, to see both sides of the waterfalls.

We parked in the small parking area, and started by walking straight ahead - the south side of the falls / side trail.

We passed some sort of abandoned shack on the left, then what appeared to be a farmer’s field on the right.

The trail was quite narrow, but quickly led to a bit of a clearing on the left.

There was a cute little fence - this was the south lookout for Webwood Falls.

Honestly, the view was a little disappointing. The trees definitely obscured the view - I bet the falls are much easier to see in the early spring and late fall.

We decided to try our luck with the other side of the falls.

After making our way back to the parking lot, we turned right on Side Road 25, and walked the short distance to the other trail access point.

Turning right to get onto the trail, this was a narrow, downhill path.

Again, this one is very short - less than 100 metres to the platform, I’d guess.

This trail quickly brings you to a cute wooden platform, with - at least at the time of our visit - a much better view of Webbwood falls, than from the other side.

It was a cute little walk, and a nice enough waterfall for the small effort involved to get to it.

The forest floor was blanketed with some sort of ivy, giving the whole thing a really lush feel.

We enjoyed the view for a few minutes, then quickly headed back to the car to escape the giant swarm of mosquitos that was treating us as a buffet!

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

Theoretically - as a Nature Reserve - this park should be a nature lovers dream. The county notes it as having a mature Sugar Maple forest and meadow marsh.

It goes on to mention the diversity of habitats at the reserve being host to at least 219 plant species and 42 documented species of animal life - including some endangered species.

(No idea which Species at Risk and Endangered faunal species are represented, though!)

All that said, our wildlife encounters were kind of... lacking... during our visit.

We heard some kind of bird that wasn’t familiar to us - as we were exiting the car - but the identification app wasn’t able to pick it up, so we have no idea what it was.

On the trail - both sides - we didn’t see or hear any kind of wildlife at all - air or ground!

Unless you count mosquitos. They DEFINITELY made their presence known!

Other than that, we saw rhubarb, raspberries - looked ALMOST ripe! - and a ton of wildflowers.

There were a single, perfect purple Columbine flower, which I always love to see!

Also a weird note: Hydrangeas growing in the wild. That was a first to see, maybe it’s a thing and I just never noticed?

Niantic Games

There are no portals / Pokestops / gyms in Web Falls Nature Reserve, or in the immediate area.

Final Thoughts

This was a cute little trail, and a fun spot to visit... with a bit of a caveat.

I wouldn’t make a whole separate trip from very far, JUST to visit Webwood Falls Nature Reserve - especially in the late spring or summer.

It’s too short of a trail, and too small of a payoff for a long drive.

Tacking it on to a trip somewhere nearby, though? Totally worth the stop.

We’ll probably be headed back to the area in the fall, and we’d love to see what it’s like at that point. The fall colours would look gorgeous framing the falls, and - after the leaves start to fall - the falls should be easier to see.

More Places to See

Looking for some nice sights to see and great places to visit while you're out on your camping adventures? Here are a few of our favourite day use parks, attractions, etc.

Batchawana Bay
Big Bay, Ontario
Bruce Peninsula National Park
Doube's Trestle Bridge
Eugenia Falls Conservation Area
Falls Reserve Conservation Area
Flowerpot Island
Hogg's Falls
Menesetung Bridge
Point Pelee National Park
Scenic Caves Nature Adventures
Spirit Rock Conservation Area
Temagami Fire Tower
Walter's Falls
Wasaga Beach Provincial Park