Ammonite Falls - Nanaimo
Benson Creek Falls Regional Park
The most dramatic waterfall of the Nanaimo parks is also one of its most secret ones. Ammonite Falls is one of three significant waterfalls in a series of canyons sliced deeply into the thick loam and sedimentary bedrock of Mount Benson's nether foothills. Aside from the stunning verticality of the place, the distinguishing characteristic of the park is its profusion of oceanic fossils.
Why's it called Ammonite Falls?
Ammonite
Falls is named for the fossils that inhabit the stack of sedimentary
layers of rock kept slick by the falls. A brief foray into the rock
matrix in the Benson Creek Falls Regional Park reveals a vast number of
concretions, ball'o'fossils that can be broken open to reveal ancient
life. Most concretions contain merely a protean speck, while others
house ammonites, snail-like creatures similar in shape and form to the
modern Nautilus. These were very common in Paleozoic and
Mesozoic oceans, 400 to 65 million years ago. Many large shells are
embedded in the stone of the riverbed (one at least is the area of a
Nanaimo bus schedule).