The Blue Mountains are not mountains, but they are the nearest thing southern Ontario has, a section of the Niagara Escarpment that rises abruptly from the shore of Georgian Bay to give you real hills, real ski slopes and a view across the water to the far shore. The name comes from the way the ridge looks from the lake on a hazy day, and the ski resort at its foot has made the district famous across the province. Collingwood, a former shipbuilding town on the bay, sits to the east and is the place most people use as a base.
The escarpment here is a more dramatic ridge than farther south. It is formed of limestone and dolomite over softer shale, and the face has been broken into caves, crevices and boulder fields, some of which you can visit at the Scenic Caves. Orchards cover the lower slopes, and the Georgian Bay climate, tempered by the cold, deep water, suits apples and pears better than most of Ontario. In late summer and autumn there are farm stands and cider mills all along the road, and a trail of apple pie places that locals take seriously.
For riders, the lanes that cross the escarpment climb in a few honest bends, with a long view across the bay from the top. Highway 26 runs fast and busy along the shore, and the side roads up into the hills are where you want to be, especially the ones that wander between the farms and the ski runs, with good surfaces and sensible gradients. Weekend traffic is heavy in the ski season and on holiday weekends, so a weekday morning is much better. Fog can roll in off the bay, particularly in spring and autumn, and the temperature at the top can be several degrees cooler than on the shore.
Collingwood, eight kilometres away, has everything: fuel, restaurants, motels and a pleasant old main street. Wasaga Beach, to the south-east, has a famously long sandy beach and a lot of summer crowds. If you want a quiet end to the day, find a spot on the bay shore at sunset, when the whole bay turns pink and the wind drops, and watch the ridge go dark.