Bruce Peninsula National Park is a national park on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. Located on a part of the Niagara Escarpment, the park comprises 156 square kilometres and is one of the largest protected areas in southern Ontario, forming the core of UNESCO's Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve. It was established in 1987 to protect the rock formations and shoreline of the Niagara Escarpment. The park offers opportunities for many outdoor activities, including hiking, camping, boating, and bird watching. The park has trails ranging in difficulty from easy to expert, and connects to the Bruce Trail. Bruce Peninsula National Park is known for its crystal clear blue waters, cobblestone beaches, rocky cliffs and karst formations.
Geology
200px|left|thumb|"The Grotto" at Bruce Peninsula National Park
The Niagara Escarpment runs from near Rochester, New York, to Tobermory, then on to Manitoulin, St. Joseph Island and other islands located in northern Lake Huron where it turns westwards into the Upper Peninsula of northern Michigan, south of Sault Ste. Marie. The escarpment then extends southwards into Wisconsin following the Door Peninsula and then more inland from the western coast of Lake Michigan and Milwaukee ending northwest of Chicago near the Wisconsin-Illinois border. It forms the backbone of the Bruce Peninsula and shapes the northern boundary of most of the park and provides the park with some of its most spectacular scenery.
The rock of the escarpment is very old. Approximately 400 million years ago, this area was covered by a shallow tropical sea teeming with life in the form of plant-like animals, crustaceans, living corals and mollusks. It would have looked much like the present-day Great Barrier Reef of Australia. When the sea began to dry up, the minerals dissolved in it became more and more concentrated. Magnesium in the water was absorbed into the limestone, which then became a harder, slightly different sort of rock, called dolomite.
The harder dolomite forms much of the rock of the escarpment cliffs along Bruce Peninsula National Park's Georgian Bay shoreline. At Niagara Falls, the dolomite "caprock" is more resistant to erosion than the rock below it, creating the sculptured cliffs for which the area is famous. Since the last ice age, water levels in the region have undergone great changes. Softer limestone has been eroded away by water action, leaving magnificent overhanging cliffs at various points along the shore. These are the big attraction of the Cyprus Lake trails. Where erosion has cut more deeply, caves have been formed, such as the famed "Grotto" on the shore between the Marr Lake and Georgian Bay Trails. Great blocks of dolomite, undercut by wave action, have tumbled from the cliffs above and can be clearly seen below the surface of the deep, clean waters of Georgian Bay.
Climate
The park has a typical climate for lakeside Northern Ontario, though the surrounding bodies of Lake Huron moderate the temperates. The park has a humid continental climate (Dfb), with warm to hot summers and cool winters. In the coastal northern parts of the peninsula, the climate is among the most temperate in Ontario. The climate of the park is influenced by both Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, which significantly moderate temperatures. Summers are warm, with an average temperature of while winters are cool, averaging .
Flora
A variety of natural habitats are found in the park. These include mixed-wood forests, wetlands, alvars, talus slopes, and cliffs. The park is known for its wildflowers and has many species of algae, mosses, and lichen. There are over 32 species of ferns and 34 species of orchids that are found in the park, including the eastern prairie fringed orchid, which is one of the rarest species native to North America. which is considered a vulnerable species. Forest cover includes eastern white cedar, spruce, fir, birch, poplar, maple, and beech.