Salt and Whycocomagh Mountains
from the Orangedale Road

When I got up in the morning of this day, the skies were still mostly clouded over, but spots of blue were showing and the sun was shining. After breakfast and tending to some errands, the morning improved considerably and it started looking like a perfect day for photography, as it indeed turned out to be, with pure blue skies, very bright sun, and nearly hazeless air arriving by mid-morning (the only haze I saw later that day was when looking across water to distant shores). Accordingly, I set off for Marble Mountain, with many stops for photos along the way. This was one of the first, shortly after turning onto the Orangedale Road, where the head of Whycocomagh Bay affords the open views of the mountains on its far side seen on this page.

Photo #1 looks across Whycocomagh Bay at Salt Mountain, easily identified by the arc cut across it near the centre of the photo, and at Whycocomagh Mountain, which is behind Salt Mountain and continues to the right of the photo. The trees along the head of Whycocomagh Bay conceal its waters from this vantage point, but give a good idea of the shoreline.

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Photo #2 is a telephoto view of the left portion of photo #1. A trail leads up Salt Mountain, where the views are splendid from the top: one can see all four of Cape Breton Island’s counties from here on a clear day, from the Washabuck Peninsula to the East Bay Hills on the far side of the Bras d’Or Lake.

Photo #3 looks to the right of photo #2 at Whycocomagh Mountain across Whycocomagh Bay. Two beautiful brooks, Argyle Brook and MacPhersons Brook, descend from Whycocomagh Mountain, and are worth seeking out, both for good uphill hikes and for the beauty of the streams as they descend pell mell across rocks and boulders.