After one day’s relaxation we will drive to Mount Royal. We will walk forward after parking the car.
1. maison smith
We will walk to a building known as Maison Smith. The building gains its name from its original owner in the mid-1800s, but now it’s the headquarters for the park management. Here we will find some very interesting displays, plus a kiosk selling the coffee
In the basement there is a rock. 20,000 years ago, the Ice age, this rock was covered by ice 2km thick!
Maison Smith.
Maison Smith.
A rock sitting in the basement of Maison
Smith is eroded by glacier 20,000 years ago.
The sign tells us that about 20,000 years
ago, the rock is covered by a glacier two kilometers thick!
2. beaver lake
When we get out of the Maison Smith, there
is a small but beautiful lake called bever lake entending
in front of us.
There are many assorted fishes in the lake
and many kinds of birds flying.
Beautiful Beaver Lake.
3. The Summit
We keep walking into the mountain. The rock
of Mount Royal is special. Per the formation
of the rock, I will tell the story of Mount Royal.
Mount Royal (French: Mont Royal) is a
mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately
west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians
and the Appalachians.
The mountain consists of three peaks:
Colline de la Croix (or Mount Royal proper) at 233 m (764 ft), Colline
d'Outremont (or Mount Murray, in the borough of Outremont) at 211 m (692 ft),
and Westmount at 201 m (659 ft) elevation above mean sea level. At this height,
it might be otherwise considered a hill, but it has always been called a
mountain, given there are no actual mountains in the Montéregie region.
Mount Royal is an extinct volcano but is is
not a traditional volcano as such. However, it is the deep extension of a
vastly eroded ancient volcanic complex, which was probably active about 125
million years ago. The mountain was
created by intrusion in which process when the North American Plate moved
westward over the New England hotspot, along
with the other mountains of the Monteregian Hills. The magma intruded into the
sedimentary rocks underneath the area, producing at least eight igneous stocks.
The main rock type is a gabbro composed of pyroxene, olivine and variable
amounts of plagioclase. During and after the main stage of intrusion, the
gabbros and surrounding rocks were intruded by a series of volcanic dikes and
sills. Subsequently, the surrounding softer sedimentary rock was eroded,
leaving behind the resistant igneous rock that forms the mountain.
The mineral montroyalite, discovered in Montreal, is named after
the mountain that provided the definition sample.
There are no longer any active quarries on Mount Royal, but we can still see signs of exploitation
of rock used for construction. The wall reveals layers of grey rock in
alternating shades of light and dark. These are Trenton limestone strata, formed about 450
million years ago. The layers are cut through with sheets of magmatic rock,
called dikes, formed when magma pushed up through the limestone, about 125
million years ago.
Dikes were formed one after the other
through reoccurring intrusions of magma. The most spectacular intersection of
dikes here is one that looks like a giant game of tic-tac-toe…
Rock of Mount Royal
It will take us about 1 hour to walk to the
summit. We will enjoyed the bird view of Montreal.
4. The Giant Cross
The big cross stands at the peak Mount
Royal Proper. It will take us about 15 minutes to arrive at the foot of the
cross. At the peak, there are several American eagles flying in the sky. They are
hovering while seeking preys.
The Giant Cross.
American Eagle.
5.St-Joseph Church
We walk down the hill and arrive at St.
Joseph Catholic Church. It’s the biggest church in Canada. Its dome is the second
biggest in the world. It’s very splendid inside the church.
St. Joseph Church.
Inside St. Joseph Church.
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