Cape Breton

Yesterday I drove the Cabot Trail, 300 km around Cape Breton in northern Nova Scotia.  It''s world renowned for spectacular vistas, justifiably so.  My first stop was only a mile from my motel...the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site.  Bell and his family lived here in Baddeck for about half of each year from the mid 1880s until his death in 1922.  He invented or improved many things beside the telephone.  This is a model of a hydrofoil he and a colleague developed.  In 1919 it reached a speed of 70 mph on nearby Bras d' Or Lake.  Bell also improved Edison's original phonograph, and was instrumental in devising a way for deaf people to communicate orally.  He was also one of the founders of the National Geographic Society in 1888.  Check out Wiki for more info on this remarkable man. 

Rocky Atlantic Ocean coast in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Another Atlantic coastal shot.  I had a pleasant hike in this area, with lush forest and fine vistas.

The forest floor presents an endless diversity of shapes and shades.

Serious rocky shoreline in the park.  It was a mild, calm day when I took this pic yesterday...in the 70s, much nicer than forecast.  But the weather is usually harsh along this coast.  Gales roar from autumn to spring, accompanied by rain, ice, and snow...sometimes all three in the same day.

A peaceful stream.  Beautiful in June, but imagine how it would look in early October, when the forest morphs into autumn splendor.  I reckon my next trip here will be about that time of year.

A waterfall, immersed in the forest.

Quite an impressive canyon for eastern North America!  Much of Cape Breton is a plateau, 1000 to 1500 feet above sea level, made of ancient, hard rocks, several hundred million years old.  Erosion is negligible except in canyons like this one. 

I went for a stroll through a bog on the plateau, on a boardwalk nature trail.  The park brochure advertised it as a good place to see moose, and bingo!!  After a decade of seeing scads of moose warning signs on the highways of about ten states and provinces, but only getting brief, distant glimpses of the critter twice, I finally saw moose up close and in leisurely fashion!  Not too close...I was about 50 years away, which is probably about right as these fellows can get cantankerous at times.

Actually, there were two moose...a mother and her nearly grown calf.  Here the calf has broken into a trot and passed mom.   MOOOOOSE!!  I was frankly thrilled to finally see a couple after all these years of searching, checking every roadside marsh on highways from New Brunswick to Minnesota to BC.

Mid June, and the conifers on the Cape Breton plateau are just budding fully.  Most of the year it's harsh here...icy and windy.  The vegetation is more similar to the usual stuff 500 miles...or more...north of here.

I've now crossed over from the Atlantic to the Gulf of St Lawrence.  Rugged but serene...on this day.  I would guess the Gulf can get some pretty big surf during stormy conditions...the pile of driftwood far up the beach just south of here was evidence.