Nova Scotia: Skyline Trail

Distance: 5.7 miles round trip
Elevation: 1,500 ft
Elevation Gain: Minimal
Critters: Moose

The end of the Skyline Trail looks out over the ocean in a series of cascading wooden steps and platforms with benches. The view opens up only the last quarter mile though.

Since we had only one day on the Cabot Trail, we knew we could only pick one hike. The Skyline Trail is the iconic trail in the Highlands National Park. It is in all the brochures, and even the park rangers were gushing. We were worried that ~6 miles round trip would take up too much of our day, but the Skyline is practically flat, so it only took us 2 hours to do.

All the pictures of this trail show the far end when the trail becomes a boardwalk over the bog. There is quite a bit of walking through the trees to get to this point, however, so be forewarned.

The first 0.5 miles of the trail is along a broad service road.

The trailhead is off the main road, but then you walk 0.5 miles up a wide service road before the real trailhead. There is a small bathroom there and a ranger standing by to educate the curious about the Moose in both English and French. As I walked by I saw the ranger hold up a jar of Moose droppings and as a women in French if she would like some chocolate. Ah! My 4 years of high school French just paid off! Now I know those things on the ground are actually chocolate left by the thoughtful Canadian Rangers. I wish our rangers were as kind to hungry hikers.

Moose (Alces alcies americana) on the narrow forested trail.

It was not long up the trail before we ran into a crowd staring that the rather large butt of a Moose sticking out of the trees. I have been wanted to capture a Coloradoan Moose for this blog for so long that I almost had an epileptic fit. Alas, I was snapping pictures so quickly, my auto focus did not have time to catch up. Then much to the delight of all present, another Moose just started walking up the trail right towards us. I am guess this was the kid of the much larger Moose whose butt we were not intimately familiar with. It took off into the woods, which was a good thing because passing a Moose, no matter how diminutive, on a narrow trail is no easy thing.

The trail also traversed small patches of mixed deciduous forest.

As I mentioned above, the Skyline trail is narrow and winds through coniferous forest before opening up to a barren area with many dead trees. The forest had been killed off and the new trees have been attracting the Moose, which have been eating the young, replacement trees, leaving the area barren. The Park Service has fenced off an area to see what would happen to the plant succession without the Moose.

I took this shot on a short social trail that exited the forest.

The trail contains patches of other trees and then low shrubs when on nears the boardwalk. 1,500 ft above the ocean, the boardwalk does contain dramatic views. There are platforms with benches all the way down to a low hill. We decided to stay on the upper platform for the most broad view. A large eddy could be seen to the left and the spouts of whales were visible to the naked eye off shore.

Reaching the boardwalk

We had hoped that the heat wave that was hitting Nova Scotia would be less daunting in the park where the terrain was open to the ocean breezes. Alas, it was 28C with no wind. We were roasting. There is limited infrastructure in the park, and our 1 Liter of water a piece was dwindling fast. I felt quite exhausted by the time we reached the car where I downed that last of my horded water and blasted the air con. I can imagine on a typical day, the Skyline Trail would be quite chilly.

Nova Scotia: Cabot Trail

The iconic photo of the Cabot Trail inside the Cape Breton National Park. Much of the drive is in the trees, so this is one of the best views.

The Cabot Trail and Cape Breton National Park are listed by many travel magazines as one of the most scenic drives in the world. There are parts of the drive that are panoramic indeed and other parts that are best seen at 80 miles an hour...not that you can go that fast by any means on Canada's roads. With all the hype, we just had to go.

The Acadian side of the island. This area was filled with open fields, houses, and Acadian flags.

It took us 5 hours to drive from Lunenburg to Beddeck on Cape Breton Island and in hindsight, we might have chosen to stay in the south. When you travel, you make choices, however, and never really know if it was the right one until you have seen it all. If I had to do it over again I would I have spent my time entirely in the south or entirely on Cape Breton. Trying to touch both was too much for a one-week vacation. The guide books are very clear about this too, but if you think you may never get back to a certain area it is hard to not want to hit the highlights.

One of the ocean views from a pull out in the park.

Looking deep into the park from another pull out. The guide book had me thinking much of the park was Highland bog. As you can see it is very forested. Most of the park is inaccessible due to the deep canyons that can be seen here.

We stayed in Beddeck for two nights so that we had a whole day to drive the Cabot Trail. Tour buses do this in about 8 hours. The guide books recommend 3 days. We wanted to start at 8:00 AM but really did not get going until 9:00 AM and returned by 8:00 PM. We did go hiking in the National Park, which added a couple of hours to the day. Our hike will be the subject of my next post.

St. Lawrence Bay. This area is off the Cabot Trail. It sits on the far northern tip of Cape Breton. The CD we were listening to indicated the trip was a worthy detour. We had intended to go all the way to Meat Cove but decided time and day light were running short. We talked to some tourist in the airport who stayed there. There was no food and no one told them.

The proprietor of our Inn gave us a CD with a narrated driving tour of the Cabot Trail. This made our trip. There is so much cultural history in the area that we would have missed had we not heard the CD. We learned about the Acadian side of the island and could recognized the Acadian flags (French with a gold star) as well as the Scottish side. We learned about the fishing camps and the history of the National Park. If you can find this CD before you go, you will enjoy it.

Neil's Harbor and the many types of fishing floats. There is a restaurant here but we were not yet ready for dinner so we continued on.

The guides books all mentioned how harrowing the drive is through the National Park. Those travel writers need to come to Colorado if what to know what a understand the definition of harrowing! The drive was no worse than I-70 and did not even come close to Red Mountain Pass or Trail Ridge Road.

A view on Middle Head, a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic. The Cabot Lodge is just behind me. There is a trail that all the books recommend in this spit of land. We did not have time to do two hikes, however.

The author sitting at the Keltic Lodge.

At the end of our journey, we ate dinner at the Cabot Lodge, which was on the cover of our guide book. South of this area there are many artist studios that would have been fun to visit but they were all closed by the time we got there. We could have returned the next day since they are relatively close to Beddeck, but instead we decided to take a boat tour to the bird islands. I will post that trip shortly.

We came across this beach south of Cape Smokey. The sun was just beginning to set.

In an ideal universe, spending several days on the Cabot Trail would be ideal. Be advised though that infrastructure is definitely lacking in places, so planning your stops is required.