Foliage at Meat Cove

From the Sunrise Look-Off, I drove the rest of the way to Cape North Village and turned onto the Bay St Lawrence Road there. By the time I reached the turn into Bay Road Valley, the sun had disappeared and would not again reäppear until I reached north of Ingonish later in the day. This was a huge disappointment, given the earlier quickening sun, as I had hoped to get good photos of the foliage along the Meat Cove Road which, around Capstick especially, can be gorgeous. I was dispirited when I reached Meat Cove, as the lighting was poor and the foliage absolutely magnificent—I don’t think I’ve seen better colours there ever before. When I got home, I was amazed that the photos turned out so much better than I had expected, capturing the brilliance of the scene even without any help from the sun.

Photo #1 looks from south of the corner of the Meat Cove Road by the Meat Cove Campground at the gorgeous fall foliage strung over the Highlands north of Meat Cove Mountain, in the centre of the photo. The colours coming down the unnamed brook valley at the mid-left seem as if they were spilt out of a paint can in a long flowing arc. What a beautiful profusion of colours of all hues of the rainbow are seen here at their peak! The willow in the foreground is unchanged; evidence of very recent changes are seen in some of the trees at the left and along the road. The road at the bottom right corner leads off the Meat Cove Road down to the mouth of the Meat Cove Brook and the beach area there.

Photo #2 looks along the Meat Cove Road from the same location as photo #1 at the Highlands rising above the Meat Cove Brook in the middle ground and further distance. I was really amazed to see the hints of blue sky and white clouds in this photo, as my memory is of dull grey clouds overhead blocking off the bright sunlight of the earlier afternoon. The foliage on the slopes at the right is, at least from this distance and in this light, not as bright as that at the foot of Meat Cove Mountain, at the left; numerous trees at the summit are already bare, while there is much better colour on the lower slopes above the brook. As for the slopes in the far distance, below which Meat Cove Brook bends, they are yet duller, though some spots of colour can be seen across them.

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Photo #3 brings the valley of the unnamed brook whose course marks that of the Meat Cove Mountain Trail, as the latter runs alongside the former during most of the ascent up the mountain. Here, it is seen that much of the upper part of the mountain has leafless trees, while those not that much further down are at the peak of the colours. For some of the (summer) views from the peak of the mountain, see this page.

Photo #4 looks at the lovely stand of bright yellow trees that has somehow established itself on the rocky cliffs of Meat Cove Mountain, the better to shine forth its beauty for all to see. Clearly related to the trees in the bottom left of the photo, how they got that high up on unforgiving soil and managed to flourish is amazing, though clearly, it has some pretty hardy company as evergreens have colonized the mountainside even further up above it.

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Photo #5 was taken from beside the Meat Cove Campground from the road, looking southeast at the valley of Edwards Brook, which comes down the mountainside and enters Meat Cove Brook just upstream of its mouth. While a few bare trees are present, the bright yellows intermixed with unchanged or lime greens stand out almost as brightly as if the sun were shining upon them. Some lovely reds can also be seen, but have to be looked for. What a lovely riot of colour, punctuated by the dark evergreens at the bottom right and scattered elsewhere in the photo.

Photo #6 looks at a lovely multi-coloured group of trees below Meat Cove Mountain, a bit of the rock face of which can be seen at the upper right (use photo #1 to locate the trees seen in this photo). Here, the oranges are more noticeable, but yellows and lime greens are also seen.

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Photo #7 looks up from near the campground at the mountainside in the area between the valleys of Edwards Brook (at the left outside the scope of the photo) and the unnamed brook which the Meat Cove Mountain Trail follows (at the right and also outside the scope of the photo, though the ridge above it can be seen at the upper right). Here, more bare trees can be seen, doubtless due to the strong winds that buffet this mountain from the Gulf, but those with leaves are still a riot of many different colours, with even a few reds thrown in for good measure.

Photo #8 was taken from Black Point at some distance from Meat Cove village; here Big Bertha focusses on the end of the Meat Cove Road and the start of the Lowland Cove Trail up the mountainside west of the village. Some of the humidity that was in the air has suffused this photo of the colours, blurring them a bit, but the profusion of lovely colours can still be readily made out. This was clearly at the peak of colours—just amazing with no sun at all to help!

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Photo #9 looks well to the left of photo #8 at the base of the mountain on which the Meat Cove Look-Off is found across the Meat Cove Brook valley from Meat Cove Mountain. The course of Meat Cove Brook at the bottom of the mountain can be seen as the gap through the trees at the centre and right. Here, the colours are pre-peak, with many unchanged greens all over the far side of the mountain, though it looks like, when they have changted, they will be mostly orange-hued like their more advanced fellows. How lovely it would be to see this in direct sunlight!