Red Hill Valley is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

in eastern and south-eastern Hamilton,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. The valley is named after and home to the Red Hill Creek, which flows north-east from

Albion Falls Albion Falls is a classical/cascade waterfall flowing down the Niagara Escarpment in Red Hill Valley, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. With cascade falls the downpour is staggered into a series of steps causing water to "cascade". The top of the fa ...

on the

Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States that runs predominantly east–west from New York through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and into Illinois. The escarpment is most famous as the cliff ov ...

, before bending north-west near the

Queen Elizabeth Way The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is a 400-series highways, 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, New York (state), New York. The Controlled-access highway ...

and discharging into

Hamilton Harbour Hamilton Harbour, formerly known as Burlington Bay, lies on the western tip of Lake Ontario, bounded on the northwest by the City of Burlington, on the south by the City of Hamilton, and on the east by Hamilton Beach (south of the Burlington Ba ...

at Windermere Basin. The name of the area comes from the reddish soil, rich with

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

. The valley is estimated to be in size. The Red Hill Valley was the site of a protracted battle over an expressway through the valley, ultimately constructed in 2007.

Expressway

The Valley is the site of the Red Hill Valley Parkway, which was completed through the valley in 2007. Originally called the Red Hill Creek Expressway during planning, construction was fought by environmentalists for many years. The expressway was proposed as part of a plan to bypass Hamilton along its south side, and facilitate development to the south and east of Hamilton. The valley, located between Hamilton's core and Stoney Creek, was chosen for the route of the expressway in the 1970s. The route was chosen over urban routes to avoid destruction of the neighbourhoods on either side and the resulting land costs. After government cancellations and environmental assessments, compromise plans proposed in the 1990s to save the valley were ultimately rejected. The final design incorporated some compromises intended to ameliorate the effect of the expressway on the valley, including reducing the expressway width from six lanes down to four, cleanup of toxic lands along the creek, and creek habitat improvement. The City of Hamilton proceeded with construction in the first decade of the 2000s. Construction was halted several times by protesters occupying the valley and blocking access to construction sites. The City had to complete the project with security firms patrolling the valley.

King's Forest

King's Forest is the name of the park lands at the head of the Valley where it meets the

. Within the King's Forest park, Red Hill Creek tributaries make three

waterfalls A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several w ...

over the Escarpment, the most notable being

. Buttermilk Falls is near to Albion Falls and is the least known of the three waterfalls. The other waterfall is called

Felker's Falls The city of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada is home to more than 100 waterfalls and cascades, most of which are on or near the Bruce Trail as it winds through the Niagara Escarpment. Ontario's internationally recognized Niagara Escarpment provides ...

External links

Friends of Red Hill Valley
- An organization formed out of opposition to the expressway. {{coord , 43.2234, N, 79.7981, W, display=title Landforms of Hamilton, Ontario Valleys of Ontario