About Tews Falls
Tews Falls was a very attractive plunge waterfall dropping about 41m (said to be the tallest in Southern Ontario besides Niagara Falls). Although we’ve seen in the literature that this waterfall tended to have lower flow given its tiny watershed, we happened to see it in a pleasantly wider and more full state (possibly rejuvenated from the rains of the previous night and early morning) while beautiful October Autumn colors adorned the cliff near the top of the falls. So it was given these circumstances that we also thought of this waterfall as one of the better waterfalls around the Hamilton area.
Contrasting our observations of its relatively light flow, a sign here suggested that the Spencer Gorge’s depth and curved bowl-like depression where Logie’s Creek (or East Spencer Creek) flowed over as Tews Falls could be attributed to the notion that the falls was once as large as the Horseshoe Falls segment of Niagara Falls. But these days, the Spencer Gorge was now a Y-shaped gorge where the East Spencer Creek was what was left of this ancient flow while most of the rest of the gorge and Spencer Creek’s volume occurred at the nearby Webster’s Falls, which was reachable via the 4.5km Webster’s Falls Side Trail connecting the two falls or an even shorter path from a separate car park.
Visiting Tews Falls was literally a breeze as we walked from its nearest car park (see directions below) along a short path past the aforementioned Webster’s Falls side trail junction, then past a bridge over East Spencer Creek, and then past a junction with the Dundas Peak Trail towards a lookout affording us the view you see at the top of this page. The walk only took us less than 5 minutes round trip, and we easily spent most of our 25 minutes away from the car simply taking waterfall photos as well as basking in the view downstream towards the Greater Hamilton area (hinting at what our view might have been like had we summited Dundas Peak).
There was a per-vehicle fee of $10 for our visit in October 2013. However, this fee also covered the car park for Webster’s Falls so we didn’t have to pay a second time to go over there. Proceeds from this fee went towards the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) which seemed to be the entity responsible for most of the restoration and conservation work pertaining to the many waterfalls in and around the City of Hamilton. Unlike many of the other waterfalls we encountered in both the Hamilton and Golden Horseshoe areas, the view of Tews Falls was best seen from the official viewing deck and access to its steep gorge to improve its view was not necessary (especially given the danger involved in going down there).
From Hamilton, there are a couple of ways to get to the Hwy 6 north exit leading towards the town of Dundas, where Tews Falls can be found.
The first way would be to take the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) along the shores of Lake Ontario towards its junction with Hwy 403 west. This would bypass the City of Hamilton on its east side. Once on the Hwy 403 East, continue for about 7km then take the Hwy 6 north exit.
The other way would be to take the Hwy 6 north from western downtown Hamilton from one of its many onramps. Then, continue towards the Hwy 6 north exit, leaving the highway’s transition into becoming Hwy 403 east.
The Hwy 6 north exit leaves the freeway, which continues north for just under 3km towards its intersection with Hwy 5. Turn left onto Hwy 5 and continue for about 5.4km towards Ofield Rd. We turned left onto Ofield Rd and continued for about 1.5km turning right onto Harvest Rd. After just under 400m on Harvest Rd, the well-signed car park for Tews Falls section of the Spencer Gorge Conservation Area was on the left.
The best place to park was at the part of the lot nearest to Harvest Rd. There was more parking past the fee collection kiosk, but that would mean you’d have to walk along either the Webster’s Falls Side Trail or towards the lot by Harvest Rd to get back to the short trail to Tews Falls.
We also could have come to the car park from Webster’s Falls. See that page for directions for its waterfall. However, at the intersection of Harvest Rd and Short Rd, continue east on Harvest Rd for another 400m or so towards the Tews Falls car park on the right.
For context, Hamilton was 70km (an hour drive) southwest of Toronto, 73km (under an hour drive) west of Niagara Falls, and 309km (over 3 hours drive) east of Detroit, Michigan.
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Looking up and down the falls before briefly sweeping to the left and the gorge
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