Mount Nemo is a flat-topped outcrop on the Niagara Escarpment, just above Burlington, and it has the kind of view that makes you pull over without deciding to. The conservation area at the top has a lookout over the Nassagaweya plain, a patchwork of farms and woodlots running toward Milton, and on a clear day you can follow the edge of the escarpment into the haze and pick out Lake Ontario to the south-east. It is a good spot at sunrise, when the whole plain below is covered in mist and the rock is warm.
Geologically the escarpment is a cuesta, a slope with a cliff on one side, formed when softer shale eroded away from under a cap of harder dolomite. The rock here was laid down in warm, shallow seas around four hundred and fifty million years ago, and you can still find fossils in loose blocks if you look. Glaciers shaped the surface later, and meltwater cut gorges and channels. The Bruce Trail, Canada's oldest and longest marked hiking path, runs across the top, and walkers are usually the only other people you will meet apart from the odd cyclist.
The roads that climb the escarpment here, Guelph Line, Cedar Springs Road and the side lanes, are among the better ones in the region. They rise through woodland in a series of bends, cross the plateau between maples and old farms, and drop down toward the lake in a way that makes the escarpment feel like a real mountain range for a few minutes. Gravel appears on some of the side roads, and farm machinery is a hazard in summer and autumn, particularly during harvest. Burlington, five or six kilometres off, is a large, easy city for fuel and food, with a waterfront worth a stroll if you have time.
Time the ride for an autumn weekday if you can. The maples colour up from late September, the roads are quieter, and the plateau is at its most photogenic. Spring is pleasant but wet, and winter closes some of the minor roads. The park charges for entry and has opening hours, so do not plan on sunset unless you have checked.