Cape Breton Highlands National Park
Nova Scotia, Canada

North America has some of the most spectacular scenic drives by water in the world. The 80-mile highway that snakes above the Big Sur coastline of California rivals the Amalfi coast of Italy, and the 100-mile stretch from Key Largo to Key West along the Hwy 1 in Florida is as close to driving on water as you can get. 

Canada has its share of great maritime drives, too. Perhaps the better known ones are in British Columbia, such as Hwy 99 that runs along the east side of Howe Sound from North Vancouver on the way to Whistler. On Vancouver Island, Hwy 1 north from Nanaimo looks out on the spectacular islands and fjords of the Strait of Georgia.  

On the east side of Canada there’s a drive that rivals any of the others mentioned here: the drive along the Cape Breton Highlands in Nova Scotia. The highlands are part of Cape Breton Island, a 4,000-square-mile territory that is the northeasternmost part of the province. The drive, called the Cabot Trail in honor of the European explorer who first sighted it in 1497, winds it way up steep bluffs at the northwestern end of the island, climbing between open ocean and forested slopes. In some spots, the Cabot Trail looks like the drive along Big Sur, with the coastal forests of Oregon thrown in. On the more gentle east side of the island, the land rises much more gently from the beaches and is heavily indented with coves. 

This northern part of the island is so rugged and beautiful that the Canadians established a 365-square-mile preserve, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, there in 1936. The wild nature of the heavily watered park, with its streams, bogs, boreal forest, taiga and New England-type deciduous forests, has made it favorite with hikers, horse riders and kayakers. Animal life includes moose, mink, beaver, lynx, bald eagles, pilot whales, bobcats and coyotes. 

But all this raw nature doesn’t mean the park is isolated from more upscale accommodations or cultural activities. The Cabot Trail, 185 miles long and “doable” in one day, passes through several communities along the way where you can find superb food and shelter.

While the national park provides spectacular scenery, the rest of Cape Breton Island attracts with its rich history. Native peoples here first saw the French lay claim to the island, and then later, the British. Acadians lived here, and still do, and there remains a heavy Scottish influence on the island. It folkways remained relatively untouched until 1955, the year that a causeway connecting the  island to mainland Nova Scotia was completed.

Summer is the best season here. Despite its mostly raw and wild beauty, Cape Breton Island can be a foreboding place in the seasons of lesser light.

– Patrick Totty