Ouimet Canyon is a large

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

in the municipality of Dorion,

Thunder Bay District Thunder Bay District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. The district seat is Thunder Bay. In 2016, the population was 146,048. The land area is ; the population density was . Most of ...

northwestern Ontario Northwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the ...

, Canada, about northeast of the city of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

. The gorge is deep, wide and long, protected as part of Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park. There is a walkway consisting of

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of bridge ...

s and

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

s, which leads to viewing platforms overlooking the canyon. Visitors to the canyon should remain on the marked trails for their own safety. Also in the Ouimet Canyon area, there are rare alpine flowers that are considered especially beautiful and arctic plants normally found one thousand kilometres further north. The canyon is shown in the IMAX film ''

North of Superior ''North of Superior'' is a 1971 Canadian IMAX film directed by Graeme Ferguson. It is a travelogue of the area of Ontario, north of Lake Superior. It was commissioned for the then-new Ontario Place and was one of the first IMAX films made. Design ...

''. The canyon was named after the former railway station of Ouimet, today an unincorporated place and railway point, located nearby on the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

line. The station itself was named after the Canadian

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

from 1892 to 1896,

Joseph-Aldric Ouimet Joseph-Aldric Ouimet, (baptised Aldric; May 20, 1848 – May 12, 1916) was a Canadian parliamentarian. Biography Ouimet was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in an 1873 by-election as Member of Parliament for Laval, Quebec ...

. Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park, a day-use park with no camping facilities, covers an area of around the canyon.

Geology

The canyon is believed to have formed when a

diabase Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-graine ...

sill dating from a billion years earlier was split open, either by the weight of advancing

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s or the large volumes of water released during their retreat.

Erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

by wind and rain continued the formation of the canyon. A large rock column known as the Indian Head can be seen from the northern viewing area.

Eagle Canyon

Near Ouimet Canyon is the privately owned and operated Eagle Canyon, which features on-site camping, two footbridges spanning the gorge and a

zip line A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bott ...

. The longer of the two footbridges is long and is suspended above the canyon floor. It claims to be Canada's longest foot suspension bridge, but is not, because Souris swinging bridge in Manitoba, re-built in 2013 is 604 ft long The zip line is claimed to be long and is advertised as Canada's longest, highest () and fastest ().

Notes

External links

* {{Ontario parks Landforms of Thunder Bay District Canyons and gorges of Ontario Protected areas of Thunder Bay District