Views South of Kingross

From south of Rivulet, I drove north. It’s a goodly piece from the Hatchery Road to Kingross, about 10 km (6⅕ mi), as one travels in a narrow valley between Sugarloaf Mountain on the west and Frasers Mountain, MacLeods Mountain, and John Peters Mountain on the east (unusually for Cape Breton, these prominences all have names!). The sun didn’t reach well into the valley at most points along the road, so I didn’t stop for photos until I got just south of Kingross. On the way back, I stopped at the same place again, though by then the morning’s blue skies had become mostly overcast. The photos on this page are from my two stops there

Photo #1, taken on my arrival late morning, shows the scene looking north northwest at the (unnamed) Highland west of Big Intervale; its upper slopes at the centre right show many bare trees under magnification, but others show good colours on the middle and lower slopes. The northern end of Sugarloaf Mountain at the left of the photo is in shadows from passing clouds, which were heavier on the east side of the valley than on the west, but one can also see that its slopes were colourful. The hamlet of Kingross is just around the bend in the road; its southernmost house, a white building, can be seen through the trees at the right of the photo.

Photo #2, taken in the afternoon on the return stop, shows the magnificent red-orange, orange, and yellow sentinels that line the road next to the white house. I presume in time the lighter members of this group will turn the same bright red-orange. Although the sun was out strong here—notice the shadows in the road, it is sufficiently dark at the far left that one cannot see anything of the lovely Highland in photo #1.

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Photo #3 is a wide-angled view, also taken during the return trip, that looks to the east at John Peters Mountain, colourful even where the sun isn’t helping. Lovely fall colours are in evidence everywhere here, giving an impression that they are not too far away from their peak. In the foreground beside the road is a large field of fireweed¹ that has gone to seed, adding a rather different fall colour note to the scene.

Photo #4 is a cropped version of a close-up I took of the fireweed; alas, the constant motion of the plants in the light breeze caused some bokeh (blurriness due to the camera focussing on a different spot) to be evident here, but enough plants are clearly focussed that I still thought it useful. What an intricate mess of “silk”!

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¹ I am indebted to my friend Marg Little, who confirmed the identity of these striking plants. Their fall appearance is very different from the magenta or pink flowers they bear in the summer.↩

Photo #5, taken in the morning, looks across at the sun-blessed slopes of John Peters Mountain and the lovely assemblage of fall colours that bedizens them. What a beautiful palette spread across graceful slopes!

Photo #6, taken in the afternoon, looks closely at the stand of trees at the left of photo #3. Look at those reds! Whoo-eee! And the lemony yellows behind just make the reds even brighter! Unfortunately, the two nearest evergreens are doing their best to hide the leaves behind, and are doing a good job, but, as yet at least, the maples are irrepressible. Wow!