Family Vaca 2016....Part 3....Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Cape Breton Island is on the far northeastern end of Nova Scotia.  We were surprised at how hilly/mountainous and remote this country is.  It reminded us of western MD but with northern trees (birch & balsam) and lakes.  Most towns are along the coastal areas.  We traveled up the western side of the island and camped just inside Cape Breton Highlands Nat'l Park.

Our plans were to spend a full day hiking and seeing the sites along the Cabot Trail which is the main road through the park.  However, the rain from the previous day just didn't quite want to quit and we had an on/off again light drizzle of a day.  We couldn't just sit in our cramped camper so we made the best of it and took some hikes where the fog didn't really matter.

 First was a short hike back to a waterfall.

Next was a hike back to a lake....in hopes of seeing moose.

Nope....no moose.  Only people trying to act like a moose.

We did see several partridge.....

.....and this sign of moose.

And by evening the fog was gone and we were hopeful for a clear tomorrow.

For supper we went into Cheticamp to a nicer restaurant.  Ericka wanted to try lobster (we all tried a bite) and we tried an order of mussels which surprisingly we all liked.  Dwight ordered a burger which was quite the burger.  A young girl was at the restaurant playing Celtic music on the violin.  There is an area on Cape Breton Island that is known as Little Scotland.

The next day was beautiful and we were able to hike up the Skyline Trail.  "Where mountain meets sea and sky" was real.  These scenes are from the western side of the Cabot Trail.  The water is the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

 We found the most beautiful blueberries on top of the ridge.

We just couldn't help getting off the path and picking a few of them!

The Cabot Trail has several very steep areas to drive up and then down.  Several times we were headed down and would have gone straight into the water had the road not sharply turned.  The eastern side of the island was a bit different in terrain.

Lunch at Neil's Harbor Point Chowder House.

 The chowder was awesome with plenty of seafood.

Black Brook Beach

The eastern side is the Atlantic Ocean.

Black Brook Beach

This reminded me of a beach along Lake Superior with all the rocks and the waterfall creek next to it.

It was a beautiful day.  We camped south of the the national park near Baddeck.  We were at a private campground that had such amenities as a pool, laundromat, great wifi, and a lounge where we could watch TV (Olympics).  Unfortunately, as we were making supper, we found out that the whole Island of Cape Breton lost power and was going to be out for close to 3 hrs!  So much for using all the great amenities!  We had also hoped to spend some time in Baddeck but without power, we figured there wasn't much to do there either so we did more bonding and played Rook instead by the light of our Coleman lantern.