On this site, we were able to determine that the bedrock was Monkton quartzite, rather than Dolostone found in other areas in the park. In order to determine this, we cleaned off a surface of stone (in this case, up in the ledges on the plot) and exposed it to hydrochloric acid. Dolostone, which has large amounts of CaCO3, reacts with HCl by forming air bubbles. Quartzite, which does not contain CaCO3, does not react at all.
The overall soil series for this area was a Farmington extremely rocky loam. This addition to the soils made the plot a prime spot for tree and plant species dependent are nutrient rich sites, such as bloodroot, sugar maple, and maidenhair fern.
