page_title: Carp Hills
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Carp Hills / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Last days of the Beachburg Subdivision, with Carp Hills in the background.
context_page_description: The Carp Hills are a small range of rocky hills between the shallow valleys of the Carp River and Constance Creek, entirely within the West Carleton-March Ward of the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs roughly from Kinburn Side Road southeast to the village of Carp and the South March Highlands at March Road.
  The hills cover roughly 4,000 hectares and are mostly undeveloped. The ridge is an extension of the Canadian Shield, with a landscape that is characterized by a mix of rocky outcrops, grassland, marshes, numerous shallow ponds, and patches of mature forest. Its pristine rugged nature has been compared to the nearby Gatineau Park and is regarded as an "ecological jewel".
  The Carp Ridge is used for hiking, hunting, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling. Among the few walking and hiking trails on the ridge are the Crazy Horse trail, a 6.2-kilometre loop trail starting at March Road, and pathways at Hidden Lake Park in the village of Carp.
context_section_description: The hills are an outcrop of Precambrian bedrock, unique in the city of Ottawa, which otherwise is relatively flat. Its geology is complex, consisting of gneiss, granite, and marble substrates, and it supports a number of vegetation-landform ecologies, such as mature deciduous and mixed highland forest and mixed and coniferous lowland forest, which are rare in the area and southeastern Ontario. Typical to Canadian Shield, it has rolling terrain with highly irregular drainage and a thin soil cover with barren vegetation. A section of the hills, the Carp Barrens, spread along both sides of Thomas Dolan Parkway, is characterized by the "most extensive, best-expressed complex of granite bedrock barrens", not only on the Carp Ridge, but also in southern Ontario east of the Thousand Islands – Frontenac Arch.
  The western side of the hills are an exposed fault, creating a ridge that provides good views of the surrounding rural countryside. The gneiss at the Carp Barrens contains mica, and 2 small mines once operated there.
caption: Carp Ridge as seen from the east
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