July 13, 2012

Today we took a long drive all around Nova Scotia.  It was called The Cabot Trail and had lots of beautiful scenery.

Adults:

Today we did the Cabot Trail. We have heard nothing but wonderful comments about how we were going to love the Cabot Trail. It was suppose to be Peggy’s Cove on steroids and we were going to be awed by the beauty of it.

The Cabot Trail takes in the whole northern end of Cape Breton, and includes the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and is approximately 188 miles long. Because we knew it was going to be a really long drive for a sight-seeing trip, we met up with Nita and Phil   (we have become good friends on this trip and go everywhere together) at 8:00am. We had heard different views about how we were suppose to drive the Trail, clockwise vs counter clockwise, so we flipped a coin and went clockwise. So from the campground we headed south, then cut through the island to get to the western side. This is the dramatic side with shale cliffs where the rocks are pointed every which way from the force of the pressure when the last of the ice receded, and the earth moved rock upon rock.

The western sea drive reminded us of the Pacific Coast Highway 1 drive from Seattle to Southern California, with high rocky cliffs and the ocean below and the green forests above. In some areas the road is carved into the cliffs like ribbons before you.

The Cape Breton area was settled by many nationalities, French, Irish, Scott’s, British and their influence is still prevalent today. It is reflected in the names of the towns, the variety of foods in the restaurants and the arts and crafts sold in the gift shops.

The general consensus of our group was that the trail was too long to be covered in one day, we didn’t get back to camp until 8:00pm, and it didn’t live up to the all the hype. It was a beautiful and dramatic drive, but it didn’t compare to the Peggy’s Cove/Lunenburg area of Nova Scotia.