The Cape Breton Highlands from Cape St Lawrence

Many interesting views present themselves from Cape St Lawrence; those on this page form a tour d’horizon from Bear Hill at the north to the coast at the Fox Den. With one exception, these photos all have close to the same focal length, varying from 52 mm to 70 mm, so the sizes of objects in each are nearly the same. They were all taken from a ridge above Cape St Lawrence, 135 m (440 ft) inland from the automated light, close to the inland limit of the coastal plain, and therefore offer a slightly different perspective than the much wider-angled views seen here, which were taken near the automated light and at a lower elevation.

Photo #1 looks to the southeast at Bear Hill (also locally known as Bear Mountain), whose southwestern end was seen earlier from the look-off in the col. Its northeastern slopes display the same bare rock/gravel surface seen there, but vegetation has been rather more successful on most of the rest of its surface. The col with the look-off is at the far right of this photo.

Photo #2, which has no overlap with photo #1, looks to Grey Mountain, the local name for the companion mountain to the south of Bear Hill that is unnamed on the topographical maps, which forms the other part of the col with Bear Hill. It lies to the southwest of and in a line with Bear Hill and the “Bear Hill Escarpment” actually descends the slopes of this mountain. Vegetation covers most of this mountain, though it too has some bare rock/gravel terrain at its base. In 2014, a new trail was cut from the col to the summit of Grey Mountain, which can now be traversed to its western end, from which one has spectacular views of the entire area.

[continued below]

Photo #3 has considerable overlap with photo #2. The ridge at the centre in the distance is considerably further inland than Grey Mountain; the Lowland Cove Trail runs on this side of and below it towards the right (west). French Brook rises on the plateau behind the left end of this ridge and flows through the valley, mostly obscured here by the terrain, on the other side of the trees in the foreground; it comes around the end of Grey Mountain at the left. An unnamed tributary, which descends from the right of the distant ridge, joins French Brook behind Tittle Point, near the centre of the photo where Grey Mountain’s slope meets the left slope of the rounded hill in the middle ground. Those who hike the Lowland Cove Trail will cross both of these streams.

Photo #4 has some overlap with photo #3; it shows the ridge and mountain I have dubbed “Lowland Cove Twin Peaks”, which rises inland of Lowland Cove (see here and here for views of this mountain from Lowland Cove). The Lowland Cove Trail runs on the near side of this mountain, but on the far side of the lower hill in the middle ground.

[continued below]

The hill which rises to the north of Tittle Point, to which I refer as “Tittle Hill” for brevity, is just high enough to block any view of the High Capes or Lowland Cove from Cape St Lawrence; indeed, it blocks any view of Tittle Point itself from there. Photo #5 shows the inland end of “Tittle Hill”. An unnamed pond, a little smaller than Big Pond, sits in the depression at the far left of this hill.

Photo #6, which overlaps a bit with photo #5, shows the continuation of “Tittle Hill” as it descends towards the coastal plains seen at the right. French Brook runs on the near side of “Tittle Hill”, in a shallow valley which runs across the width of the photo through the trees in the middle ground.

[continued below]

Photo #7 completes the tour d’horizon, arriving at the coast. The mouth of French Brook is behind and to the right of the rightmost clump of trees at the centre. The coastal plain is interrupted at the line of trees seen at the upper left, which border an impassable gorge whose coastal end is known as the Fox Den (see this page and this page for views of the Fox Den). To hike to Lowland Cove from Cape St Lawrence, you therefore need to turn inland and go through the woods behind the coastal plain seen in the centre of photo #6; never fear, the path is unmistakable.

Photo #8 returns to the col between Bear Hill and Grey Mountain to its southwest, which was poorly covered in the mostly connected panorama of the preceding photos. Taken earlier in the day from near the automated light, this is a telephoto view, so objects here appear much closer than they do in the previous photos. The largest of the unnamed ponds is behind the lower part of the slope at the right; the look-off is near the centre of the photo.