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One of Ontario's largest parks, Lake Superior Provincial Park is
celebrated for its rugged and dramatic topographic features. The
park's high, rounded hills are remnants of ancient mountain ranges,
worn down over eons of time by glaciers and blanketed with glacial
sediments. Rushing rivers drop rapidly from the interior highlands
to the Lake Superior shoreline, creating rapids and dramatic waterfalls.
Faults -- places where rock masses were wrenched apart by earthquakes
-- shaped the magnificent Agawa Canyon, Agawa Rock, and Old Woman
Bay. These steep-walled valleys provide some of Ontario's most breathtaking
scenery and have inspired many artists.
The most common rocks in the area are granite and gneisses. Lava
rock from Precambrian volcanic activity, diabase dykes along the
shoreline, and relatively young Cambrian sandstone, are all relics
of the park's geological past.
The park is situated in a transitional zone between two forest regions
-- the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence, and the Boreal. The transition
is particularly striking in the autumn when the brilliant colours
of the southern deciduous trees contrast with the dark green boreal
evergreens.
An abundance of wildlife live in the park. Larger mammals include
moose, timber wolf, Canada lynx and bears; smaller mammals include
red squirrel, red fox, beaver and marten. More than 250 species
of birds have been identified inside the park boundaries, and 120
species nest here.
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