Foliage Seen from the Second Highest Look-Off
on North Mountain

The panorama of the preceding page of this essay is wildly incomplete; the North Aspy valley lies at the foot of the look-off and South Mountain spans the entire line of sight to the south. On this web page, however, I will show only small portions of this beautiful view in order to concentrate on the brilliant foliage that was visible from the look-off this day, which had a rather different character than that seen on the previous web page.

Photo #1 looks to the south and directly down below the look-off at the North Aspy River valley: the line of evergreens spanning the entire photo indicates the river’s route, though the river itself is not visible from this angle. While orange-hued trees are at the base of the photo directly below the look-off (and a few reds too!), it is the yellows that dominate in the valley and on the side of South Mountain. The force of the sunlight in the valley was not quite sufficient to trigger the “flaming forest” phenomenon, but it was pretty close. Note too that this is but a small section of the valley, which extends as far as the eye can see.

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Photo #2 looks across from the look-off at the valley the Little Southwest Brook has carved into the side of South Mountain. The sun didn’t light up the upper reaches of the valley, which appears even darker because of the evergreens there, but it was shining on the lower slopes and, at least for those deciduous trees with leaves, lit the landscape up pretty well. Note, however, the lovely yellow trees on the side of the valley at the upper right; even in the shade, they’re bright enough to make themselves plainly visible!

Photo #3 is a further look at the area in the bottom left corner of photo #2 and at that considerably further to its left and below outside its scope; both are taken at the same focal length. This location was getting the full benefit of the afternoon sun and was simply gorgeous to look at. A sprinkling of reds can be readily made out, but it is again the yellows and the greens that provide the lovely contrast with the oranges and make the overall impression so bright and beautiful.

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Photo #4 is one of many photos I took of the trees on the lower slopes of South Mountain. It’s not entirely coïncidental that a bright red tree sits near the centre of this photo.😄 Still, the dominant colours here, as elsewhere in this area, are orange/brown hues, more than a few caused by still unchanged chlorophyll lingering in the leaves, livened up with some yellows. Even in the better protected areas near the North Aspy River, bare trees in the valley are widely visible.

Photo #5 is another photo of trees in the North Aspy River valley, these nearly directly below the look-off. Here, the dominant colours are reds and yellows; there’s even a white-coloured tree in the upper right—I have no idea what it might be. In this instance, a surprisingly large number of the trees are completely or almost bare. As in photo #1, the strength of the sunlight was not quite enough to trigger the “flaming forest” phenomenon, but the colours were certainly vivid enough to shimmer as one stared at them. Except for those at the base of Kellys Mountain I was unable to photograph, the colours from Pleasant Bay to North Mountain were certainly the brightest in aggregate of those I saw anywhere in Cape Breton this fall.