Cypress Hills Conglomerate Cliffs: A unique formation

By Marie Powell

Rockhounds will find a rare treat in the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, spanning Alberta and Saskatchewan: the Conglomerate Cliffs.

Cypress Hills covers about 2,600 square kilometres (1000 square miles), reaching altitudes of about 1,400 metres (4,500 ft). The formation was created when glaciers pushed the surrounding terrain up. It's known to be less effected by erosion than the surrounding plain, and about 200 sq km (80 sq mi) on the Alberta side was also left untouched by glacial erosion.


On a recent visit to the park, I had the chance to explore the Conglomerate Cliffs, a unique area looking down some 30 m to Adams Lake. This area is located a short drive from the Fort Walsh Historical Site.

The surface of the Conglomerate Cliffs is made up of a combination of gravel and stones known as "cobbles."

Water drains from the cliff edge, creating calcium carbonate, according to some sources, and with enough geological pressure it cemented this material together to form the cliffs.

In turn, this conglomerate material resists erosion by wind or water, protecting the softer rock formations underneath and preventing the cliffs from eroding.

It's well worth exploring the footpath leading down from the cliffs for interesting and unexpected details, like this rock "cave."

As well, a variety of flowers and some 220 species of birds can be found in the park.

Here are some of the sights along the path.

Here are some links to more information about Cypress Hills and the Conglomerate Cliffs:

Geo:
http://www.uleth.ca/vft/cypresshills/geo.html#cong

SEAWA: "Geology"
http://www.seawa.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=189&Itemid=125

Kroll Travel:
http://www.krolltravel.com/stories/saskatchewan-cypress-hills-park.html

Cypress Hills pages:
http://www.cypresshills.com/index.php/saskatchewan/places-to-explore/conglomerate-cliffs

http://www.saskparks.net/

Marie Powell is the author of 15 books for children, including Dragonflies are Amazing (Scholastic Canada) and a six-book Word Families series (Amicus Publishing). Her second six-book series is expected this fall, along with two middle-grade books of Canadian history.

Rockhounds Find Dinosaur -- In A City!

By Paula Johanson

There are everyday miracles and wonders all around us much of the time. There are wonders to be found even in cities where the marks of feet trampling the ground tend to hide anything unique. In some cities it seems that everything is the colour and shape of footprints! There are a couple of ways I try to see everyday wonders underfoot -- one way is by being a rockhound.

Rockhounds are people who do a very informal kind of citizen science. They collect rocks and learn about many kinds of stone. Here's a link to a pamphlet on rockhounding from the Geological Survey Branch of the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines. 

I love to poke around at loose stones and also big rocks that stick up through the ground. Everywhere I go, I try to scrabble up hills and down gullies to find local rocks. There are often park trails to follow, but if all I have time to do is walk in a playground or along a beach, I do it. There's always a pebble or two in my pockets when I go home, except in places like Dinosaur Provincial Park where visitors are asked not to take away rocks that they find.

Bill Graveland took this photo of paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky as she pointed out the eye socket of a pachyrhinosaur skull found in the town of Drumheller, AB.

Now I'm reminded that scientists from universities are rockhounds too, and they are finding everyday miracles and wonders in unexpected places. Take Drumheller, Alberta, for example. This small city was the end point for my kayaking trip on the Red Deer River. I've walked through much of Drumheller on a few visits to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, and can report that there's a layer of amber-coloured dust over almost everything in town. The marks of footprints are everywhere that isn't paved. And in one well-trampled part of town, what looked like a bumpy rock turned out to be a dinosaur skull when some rockhounds took a closer look.

To be fair, after 60 million years in the ground it was also a bumpy rock. The skull had been preserved in rock as a fossil. How many dinosaur fossil fans have stepped on this big ol' fossil in recent years since the museum and rockhound stores were opened? No one knows.

I figure this dinosaur skull is a lesson to be aware of wonders and miracles underfoot and all around us. Instead of dividing the world into "Exciting Places" and "Oh Well -- Dull Old Home" I'm going to practise my rockhound skills at home as well as in distant places.