We, in Canada, are all thinking of the tragic fire in Fort McMurray, Alberta. I have never been there but I was in Wood Buffalo National Park, located a few hundred kilometers directly north of Fort McMurray. I wanted to share a strange part of this wonderful earth we live on. I thought I had stepped onto another planet.

Wood-Buffalo-National-Park-Grosbeak-Lake
Rocks left from the Ice-Age

I was in Wood Buffalo National Park, when I saw the most striking and eerily strange landscapes on earth. They call it Grosbeak Lake but most of the water is gone. The salt flats are what remain of the huge inland sea that once covered much of northern Canada.

Salt-plains-Wood-Buffalo-National-Park
Salt deposits

The lake is covered with corroded rocks and boulders which were carried from the Precambrian Shield in the last Ice Age. Over time, the salt, frost and wind have weathered the rocks into wonderful shapes. In some places, it appears that a huge boulder has dissolved leaving a ring of pebbles.

Grosbeak Lake
The salt Plain
Rocks dissolve on the Salt Plain at Grosbeak Lake
Wood Buffalo National Park
Rocks dissolve into strange shapes

 

Wood Buffalo National Park, is located in Northeastern Alberta and  Southern North West Territories.  It is Canada’s largest national park and one of the largest in the world. Established in 1922 to protect the free-roaming bison herds of the area, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

The area is know for its Karst topography, which is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves.

Wood-Buffalo-National-Park-sink-hole
Sinkhole formed when the limestone, gypsum and dolomite dissolved

There are lots of hiking trails in the park and it is well worth the visit. They even have a large herd of wood buffalo as well as one of the last natural breeding grounds for the whooping Crane. It is a very strange place on this Earth

Wood-Buffalo
Wood Buffalo