Driving the Kia Seltos

Canada travelog #16
At the hotel · Tue, 26 Aug 2025. 8am.

We've been driving around in Ontario, Canada, for 3 days now. I figure it's time to write about our ride. On this trip we rented a car and were assigned a Kia Seltos.

If you're like me, you've probably never heard of this car. I mean, we all know about Kia (or KN, as their new logo of a few years ago appears to read). But a Seltos? I think I heard that name once before, at another car rental depot, where the attendant offered to assign me a Kia Seltos or something else. I was like, "A Kia whatnow?" and picked the something-else, whatever it was. 🤣

The Seltos is a subcompact crossover SUV. Ours for this trip came in a dull teal/turquoise color.



I was concerned that this car might be too small when I reserved the subcompact SUV category. The Seltos impresses, though, by making very effective use of its small footprint. I would not call this a five passenger car, even though that's the what the specs and the number of seatbelts show, but it'll get the job done for 4 adults for a short trip. Cargo room in the back is plenty for 2 adults making a week-long trip. I could see doing a long trip with 3 but I wouldn't want to put 4 people and all their stuff in here for a week.

In US/Canada spec the Seltos has a 4-cylinder, 2.0L engine rated for 146 hp and 132 lb-ft of torque. Those are weak specs on paper for 2025. In the real world the car performs better than its engine specs might lead one to expect. With its continuously variable transmission (CVT) the car's acceleration is snappy and responsive around town. It also doesn't get out of breath on the highway. The suspension is tuned well. It's tight going around corners but not harsh over potholes or on bumpy roads.

The car, even in relatively basic trim for rental duty, has a satisfying number of creature comforts. For example, it has Apple CarPlay that works. Consistently. And it has heated seats— a huge win for Hawk. The controls are all easy to find and use. Yes, there's a touch-sensitive screen in the middle of the dashboard, but thankfully the secondary controls are not routed through it. There are sturdy, old-fashioned knobs and buttons for things like HVAC mode, temperature, fan speed, wipers, etc. The old ways remain the best.

We've driven a few hundred km with this car and so far I'm very satisfied. It's one of the better rental cars I've had the past several years even though it's also one of the smallest. As I noted above, it's big on the inside... and it being small on the outside was very handy when we were driving around Toronto and having to parallel park on the streets. It also has AWD. We haven't had need for that yet, but some of our hikes the next several days might take us on dirt roads to get to remote trailheads.

Dry Balls in Beamsville

Canada travelog #17
Beamsville, ON · Tue, 26 Aug 2025. 1pm.

For our first hike today we drove out to Ball's Falls near Beamsville, Ontario. It's most of the way to Niagara Falls and the US border. But we figured we'd start out here and work our way back to Hamilton as the day progresses. We've got tickets booked for Niagara Falls tomorrow.



There are two balls here. There's the upper ball, and the lower ball. Sadly they're dry balls. We found that out after we entered the park. Small, handwritten signs in the windows of the elaborate park office are like, "Sorry, our balls are dry."

We checked with the park attendant about the dryness. "It's supposed to rain Thursday," we noted. "Would the falls run again after a rain shower?"

No, she explained. The dryness is seasonal. Usually these balls stop flowing in July.

"What about other falls in the area?" Hawk asked. She rattled off at least 4 other falls on our list.

They're dry, too, the staffer informed us. It's something about how these falls south of Hamilton are stream-fed as opposed to lake-fed, or vice-versa.

Time to Call an Audible?

Well, dang. That just crossed off about 2 days worth of plans. On the drive back to Hamilton I asked Hawk, "With that many fewer places left to hike, what do you think about us going home a few days early?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking about it," Hawk said. "It depends on the costs."

Tonight we'll look at the costs of changing our flights and going home probably Friday night instead of Sunday.

Update: Tuesday night I rebooked our flights to go home Friday evening instead of Sunday. It's a bummer to cut short a vacation, but we feel we'll find more enjoyable things to do from home— including possibly going somewhere within California for the three-day holiday weekend— instead of staying in Canada.

Albion and Buttermilk Falls

Canada travelog #18
Hamilton, ON · Tue, 26 Aug 2025. 2:45pm.

The bad news today was dry balls. As in, we drove a long way to Balls Falls, and they were dry. Even worse, we found out a number of other falls we planned to hike this week are dry, too, and thus not worth visiting. At least we found that out before hiking all the way out to the falls. It's frustrating to hike all the way out somewhere just to get dry balls. And there are other falls on our list we can hike that aren't dry. Two we visited this afternoon back in Hamilton are Albion Falls and Buttermilk Falls.

Ironically for having bailed on Balls Falls because it was dry for the season, by the time we got back up to Hamilton for Albion Falls it was raining. At least it was a light rain and was already tapering off by the time we parked at the trailhead.



Albion Falls is part of a city park in Hamilton. There's no fee to enter, and even the parking is free. Bonus! Plus, you can see the falls from a pair of overlooks that are just steps from the parking.

(BTW I mentioned it had just rained when we startd hiking. This picture, showing some sunshine, is from when we got back to the car after finishing the hike. Yes, yet again it rained while we were hiking and became sunny once we were done! 😡)



From the parking lot we walked first around to the opposite side of the gorge. On the way we saw that there used to be a trail going down into it. "Can we hike up a trail from the bottom to see the falls?" has been a recurring question of ours this week. Falls are often much better appreciated looking up from the foot rather than looking down from above. But the Hamilton area authorities have been aggressive about closing off gorge trails. The gorge trail at Webster Falls was closed pretty hard. Here it's obvious there used to be an official trail. In fact you can even see the stairs on the other side of the fence. But the gate is now locked... and a vine covered with thorns has been grown over it. Hamilton's so serious about keeping people away from nature they've got a druid on the payroll!



We walked around to the other side of the gorge. There's a vista called "Lovers' Leap". Though really it should be called "Lovers Prevented From Leaping By A 5' High Spiked Fence". At least the Lawful Neutral druids didn't grow thorn bushes over it.

After No-Leaping-Past-The-Fence we doubled back past the parking lot and continued the trail in the other direction. There's actually one very long trail, the Bruce Trail, that connects numerous waterfalls along the Niagara Escarpment. We hiked it only as far as the next falls over, Buttermilk Falls.



The water is falling gently at this time of year, making Buttermilk Falls more of a Bridalveil Falls type of view. How do they come up with these names? I mean, bridalveil I totally get. But buttermilk? What about a waterfall makes people think, "Mmm, curdled milk?"



As we headed back to our car I spotted a short side-trail that led to another view of Buttermilk Falls. It doesn't lead to a trail to the bottom of the falls. With the steep canyon here any trail down would be one of those "Watch the last step" deals. 😅 But it does give a perspective that's not quite as on top of the falls as the main viewing area.

After this we walked back to the car. It was awesome to see these two falls on one short hike, and right in the middle of town, too. But we're not done for the day. No; there's more to come!

Keep reading: Next we hike Sherman Falls, then Tiffany Falls.

Back Home from Canada - Two Days Early

Canada travelog #31
Back home · Fri, 29 Aug 2025. 11:20pm.

We are back home from Canada. Our flight, a nonstop from YYZ (Toronto), landed at SFO around 9:40pm. We had bags in hand just after 10, were rolling in a car by 10:15, and walked through our own front door at 10:45. Now it's 11:20pm, I've unpacked, I've taken a shower to clean the travel stink off me (it always smells like old-lady perfume), and I'm winding down before going to bed.

Travel home this evening was mostly unremarkable. Hawk and I enjoyed putting our heels up for several hours at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge courtesy of our United Airlines elite status. That was worth a pretty decent free meal along with a comfortable place to sit while we killed about 4 hours at the airport before heading over to our gate to board. Oh, and I killed several drinks, too. Flying 5.5 hours in coach was easier when well lubricated.

...Except I didn't fly in coach. At the last minute, as I was queued up for boarding at the gate, I looked at my electronic boarding pass and saw that my seat assignment was changed to 1E. Cue Bob Uecker: I must be in the front row! 🤣 First class wasn't much of an upgrade from the exit-row aisle seat I already had in coach as it was a domestic aircraft. (Domestic First is nothing like International First.) It was basically just a wider seat and free booze. But: wider seat a free booze! 🥳

The only thing that was a disappointment about today was that we cut our trip short by 2 days. But that's not really a "today" disappointment; it's a decision we made on Tuesday after the dry balls let-down. We called an audible and rebooked our flights to return home 2 days early.

Calling an audible isn't just about cutting trips short, though. It's about swapping out something that's not working as well as planned for something else, a Plan B, that'll work better. So, what's Plan B here? We're not sure. We've still got a three day weekend since Monday is Labor Day. We may pack our bags back up and head out of town tomorrow! Or maybe we'll stay around town, hang with friends, and spend warm, sunny afternoons at the pool. It's like there are no wrong answers here.