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Along the western shore, steep wooded cliffs
rise precipitously from the Gulf of St. Lawrence
to as high as 427 metres, creating a rugged
and picturesque coastline broken by bays and
inlets. In the northwest, the hills sweep back
to form a broad plateau that extends over 90%
of the park. Where the plateau borders the Atlantic
Ocean on the east, a broader more gently sloping
coastline is characterized by low headlands,
sometimes eroded to sea level, and long curving
beaches such as Ingonish Beach. In comparatively
recent geological times, this huge plateau was
lifted 532 metres at its highest point, White
Hill, the stress creating long cracks in the
earth®s crust which became steep-walled canyons
and broad valleys. The 17 watersheds that drain
the park are fed by waterfalls that plunge in
torrents from the highlands during spring melt
rushing down river valleys to the sea.
Although there are no definite
boundaries, the park is roughly divided into
three major vegetation regions because of the
effects of land elevation: deciduous, boreal
and taiga. The deciduous sector encompasses
the protected lower slopes and moist valley
floors where the centuries old sugar maple and
yellow birch reach the northeast limit of their
range. Here also are found beech trees, mushrooms
and wildflowers: rose-twisted stalk, Dutchman's
breeches, toothwort and sweet Cicely. On the
steeper slopes of the Gulf coast, harsh weather
and salt stunt the birch, spruce and pin-cherry.
Wildflowers and rare arctic-alpine plants such
as the golden saxifrage and western rattlesnake
plantain are in abundance. In contrast, on the
Atlantic side, balsam fir, black spruce, pine
and red maple grow along the rocky shoreline.
The boreal region of the central and western
highlands, the more exposed upper slopes of
canyons, and the ridges in the north central
part of the park are characterized by balsam
fir which becomes undersized in the transitional
forests next to taiga areas marked by bogs and
barrens. On these bleak rocky headlands, low
hardy plants such as crowberry thrive. The taiga
conditions in the bogs and wetlands of the poorly
drained depressions and flats of the high plateau
as well as the exposed barrens, which resemble
the wind-swept tundra of the north, support
dwarfed tree growth, reindeer lichens, blueberry
and sheep laurel shrubs (tuckamore), waist-high
Labrador tea plants and pink sphagnum moss.
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