"Nature's Bonsai Tree"

Trees growing in the cracks of rocky outcrops often form into natural Bonsai trees. In my travels through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Quetico Provincial Park, I find these natural wonders on occasion. This Red Pine had a precarious grip on life on a solid glacial polished rock 20 ft. in diameter. It survives by sending its roots deep into a crack that splits the rock in two, gathering water from the lake and nutrients from the sparse soil in the crack.