Tuesday, June 7, 2022

The Cabot Trail!

On the Cabot Trail...

In the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

The boardwalk at the Headlands of the Skyline Trail.


A red fox by the side of the road.
A bald eagle

Tuesday, June 7th.

We woke up to a gorgeous blue sky sunny day. We had the included continental breakfast and then headed out on the Cabot Trail drive. This is a 298km drive around the top end of Cape Breton. We drove in the suggested counter-clockwise direction, which keeps you on the ocean side of the road and ensures that you don’t have to cross the road to see the views. At the north end of the trail is Cape Breton Highlands National Park where the scenery is the most spectacular. The road was very hilly, the traffic was very light, and we were in no rush. I’m sure it is much busier in the summer with more cars, campervans, motorcycles, and bicycles, but not today. We stopped at most of the scenic viewpoints and took photos. At the fishing hamlet of Neil’s Harbour, we stopped to see the lighthouse, the harbour and have a bowl of seafood chowder. When we got to French Mountain (elevation 497m) in the northwest section of the park, we did a two-and-a-half-hour walk to the headland cliff called the SkylineTrail. This is the most famous of the hikes in the park and took us to the iconic viewpoint you see on any ads for the trail. As we got there a willowy cloud of fog rolled in and obscured our view. We sat and watched and thankfully the sky cleared again and all was revealed. Then we drove the rest of the circuit back to Baddeck. We didn’t want to stay at the same place, so I booked us into Giselle’s Inn next door. It is nicer and has a restaurant in the complex. So, we had dinner and a drink and headed up to our room to sort photos and type up our notes. The weather today could not have been better and we had a fabulous day driving the Cabot Trail.

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