A Great Coastal/Mountain Drive

[ghYHZ]

Nova Scotia's Cabot Trail is ranked right up there with some of the best coastal drives and for me.....it's an easy, all-day 550 km (330 mile) round trip from home.  http://goo.gl/maps/Kke1v

http://www.thestar.com/life/travel/2013/04/26/driving_holidays_the_worlds_top_10_coastal_drives_from_california_to_cape_breton.html

The Canso Causeway links mainland Nova Scotia with Cape Breton Island. I was just across the bridge when the gates behind me closed for the swing-span to open to allow a small sail boat through (they have the right-of way)






Now onto Baddeck on TCH105 and the start of the Cabot Trail. Inventor Alexander Graham Bell's summer home was in Baddeck and he is buried there........this section of the TCH is named for him and his wife.

[ghYHZ]

You can drive around St. Ann's Bay but a nice diversion is the Englishtown Ferry. Here you can see the ferry just leaving the tip of the beach at Jersey Cove.







The switch-back at the base.......then the drive up the side and over Cape Smokey.

[ghYHZ]

The Cabot Trail passes through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park but if you're not using park facilities........ there's no need to purchase a park pass. (but highly recommended for the look-offs and the hiking trails)

[ghYHZ]

Across the top of French Mountain at 1400 ft then down along the Gulf of St. Lawrence.






Returning down the west coast of Cape Breton you can take NS19 the Ceilidh (kay-lee) Trail passing through villages of Scottish heritage with duel English/Gaelic signs.






Last January I posted some photo of a winter drive over the Trail on a -30 deg day. Today, six months later it was +30 (86F)

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=8568.0

[english si]

That's one awful copy of a US route shield - Nova Scotia could do better in both getting the design you are trying to copy right, and originality!

[ghYHZ]

That's one awful copy of a US route shield - Nova Scotia could do better in both getting the design you are trying to copy right, and originality!

Discussed here previously......it's a "Maritime Shield"

(scroll about halfway through the thread below)

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=7567.msg172119#msg172119

[xcellntbuy]

Wonderful photos!

[formulanone]

Great photos and a wonderful tour... a proper way to kick off the 10,000th thread.

[leroys73]

Great pictures. Thanks. They make me more upset as I was suppose to be up there in 2 weeks on my motorcycle. Family obligations got in the way. Oh well, the pics make me more determined for next year.  I shouldn't complain as I was up there by car in 1975 when I was 26 and single. Not many Texans can say that. But I don't remember it so well. I need a refresher.