Views from Highway 252 in Skye Glen

From Whycocomagh, I continued on Highway 252 towards Mabou; as I was passing through Skye Glen, I noticed a beautiful red tree beside the road and stopped for a photo. Alas, it did not turn out well enough to make the cut for this essay; but the other photos I took there and at another stop a bit further along the road turned out better, so I have included a selection here.

Skye Glen is a valley that is the source of the Skye River (in actuality much more of a brook than a river until it reaches its mouth) and through which it flows; this is a very fertile area with several dairy farms, not as common as one would think in today’s Cape Breton, still in operation and apparently quite prosperous. In Skye Glen, Highway 252 runs on the west side of the valley from southeast to northwest below Campbells Mountain, which dominates the valley; to the right, across the valley, a parallel ridge of lesser height rises between the valley and Lake Ainslie on its far side to the northeast.

Photo #1 looks across the valley towards that parallel ridge, where the autumnal colours of the hardwoods greet the eyes. The lovely green of the field in the foreground sets off the entire scene. Evergreens are in the lower elevations, but, aside from some individual evergreens, the hillsides and summits belong to the hardwoods. As on Skye Mountain, noticeable colour is evident here, but the colours are not yet at their peak.

Photo #2 is a close-up view of the ridge at the far right of photo #1, which gives a somewhat better idea of the colours on the ridge. Some bare trees are found at the top of the ridge, but by no means all of the leaves are gone.

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Photo #3, taken about 1 km (0.6 mi) further on, at the junction of Highway 252 and what Google Maps calls the Skye Glen Crossing Road, shows one of the dairy farms in East Skye Glen; the Skye River flows through the valley amongst the evergreens one sees left of centre in the middle ground. Many of the trees on the hillside, at the far right and beyond the field above the barns have been denuded of their leaves, making for a browner colour on the terrain.

Photo #4 looks somewhat further east where the trees at this summit are mostly intact and with considerably brighter colours, though still a ways from their peak.

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Photo #5 looks even further east, not quite parallel to Highway 252, at the ridge at the far end of the valley. Here, the distance, the angle, and the lighting return the darker heather hues, though if one were closer, there would surely be more colour: this ridge is at the right of photo #1, where its colour is distinctly less dark.