Ouimet Canyon

Canada's provincial parks are, in general, places of striking beauty.  The Canadians know how to preserve the most beautiful or geologically, archaeologically or naturally significant places.  Ouimet (pronounced “wee-MET”) Canyon, which is located about 70 km from Thunder Bay, is one of those.

The canyon is 150 meters wide and 100 meters deep, and stretches for several kilometers across the Canadian Shield.  It was formed approximately a billion years ago, when magma from deep in the earth rose through lower layers and spread out into a thick layer underground, then cooled.  Over the centuries, the rock above the harder volcanic rock wore away, leaving the volcanic rock exposed:

Geologists are unsure what happened next, but it is possible that, due partly to glaciation and partly to fracturing from water and ice, the canyon eventually formed, leaving rock that was formerly part of the volcanic layer as rubble on the canyon floor.  What was formed is a most striking environment:

The forest at the top of the canyon walls is a boreal forest – much like the forest along the north shore of Lake Superior, containing spruce, pine, birch and aspen.  At the bottom of the canyon, however, the climate is Sub-Arctic, including a variety of different plants such as tamarack, willow, and lush clumps of moss up to a foot thick.  The boulders are often encrusted with lichen.  This environment can't be found anywhere south of northern Hudson's Bay, a full 1,000 kilometers north of this location!  Often, ice and snow deposited in winter doesn't melt until late summer on the canyon floor, and many plants do not bloom in the canyon until early autumn.

The park trail is beautiful and well-maintained, with lush crops of raspberries and thimbleberries along its margin.  To get to the canyon, we had to cross a smaller canyon via a bridge that is both well constructed and maintained:

From two viewing pods, we could get a full view of the canyon.  Sadly, because the sub-arctic flora on the canyon floor is so fragile, hiking into the canyon is prohibited.

One of the more notable formations you can see from the viewing platform is a column dubbed, “Indian Head” due to its association with a native Ojibwe legend:

We found that half of beauty of this park was in the specific plant life inhabiting each eco-zone, and we were reminded again how ignorant we are in being able to identify or appreciate the significance of many species of trees and shrubs.  We took photos of some of the trees and hope to find a rainy day to crack open our plant books to learn more about this gorgeous, green country above Lake Superior.