Print Close
Cape
Breton Highlands National Park
Nova Scotia, Canada
By Patrick Totty
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.
Some useful URLs:
http://www.canadianparks.com/nova_scotia/cbretnp/index.htm
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/snapshots/cape_breton/cape_breton.htm