Cabot Trail in a Day

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Mary Ann Falls

Babbling Brook in Maple Forest

Today we headed out for a full day around the Cabot Trail. It was unbelievable; it is impossible to describe the beauty. The pictures could never do it justice. There was such a contrast; from mountains and valleys to rivers and bogs all being fed by the Atlantic ocean. We stopped along the way to admire and even wandered into one of these bogs hoping to see a moose. We never saw any but we did see where they had been laying on the grass; huge pieces of matted down grass. We were sure that they were close by, we just couldn’t see them. We even had the chance to walk through a 350 year old maple forest. We now understand why the Cabot Trail is visited by people from around the world. This is how our day went:

We started out by leaving Baddeck and driving over to Cheticamp which is just southwest of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Cheticamp is an old fishing village settled by the French. We stopped for breakfast in a cute little diner that was already decorated for Halloween. After visiting the park information center and visiting the gift shop (of course) we started our journey down the world famous Cabot Trail…

Our 1st stop was on Jerome Mountain; the views took our breath away! Be sure and check out all the pictures. We worked our way around stopping at Cap Rouge and then venturing into a bog to spot moose (no luck!) then on around to Lone Shieling which is a 350 year old sugar maple forest which also had a replica of a Scottish crofter’s hut and even a lovely little brook trickling by.

No whales were to be seen while going through Pleasant Bay but that didn’t discourage us. It is such a beautiful place, how could we complain about not seeing something! We stopped again just before getting to North Mountain to take a break and snap a few more pictures then on around through Cape North.

By now it was getting to be mid-afternoon and we were trying to get to Mary Ann Falls which we were told is one of the most visited water falls in the area. We spotted the sign for the falls and began our drive down a dirt and gravel road for 7 kilometers. We went as far as the car would take us and got out at the gate and began to walk the rest of the way. Cannon really enjoyed this. There was a wooden staircase leading down to one side of the water fall and then a small path leading to the other side where you could get the full view. We definitely took pictures here! What a lovely spot...

We finished our day by traveling through Ingonish and then back to base camp at Baddeck.

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