Bay St Lawrence from the Meat Cove Road

If one continues to the north from Cabots Landing Provincial Park along the Bay St Lawrence Road, one will pass through Bay Valley on the west side of the Cape North Massif and soon thereafter arrive at St Margarets Village beside the Coöp, where the road to Capstick and Meat Cove veers off to the left. This day, I was eager to get to Meat Cove, so I did not continue on to the picturesque area at and to the northeast of Bay St Lawrence village, leaving that for another day. Instead, I bore left onto the Meat Cove Road. That road proceeds a bit west of north before arriving at the Bay St Lawrence (the water) shore. There, at an unofficial look-off at the side of the road, this stupendous view of the coast to Cape North, including the whole Cape North Massif (of which photo #1 shows only a portion), commands one’s full attention.

As can be seen, the winds remained brisk, with fine surf along this whole coast. Bay St Lawrence village lies hidden behind the headland about a third of the way in from the right edge of the photo; the breakwater that marks the entrance into the harbour, can be seen extending beyond this headland. Just left of centre one can see the Money Point Light trail as it climbs up a cleft in the massif. And in the centre of the photo, one can barely make out the three communications towers, one of which is the CBC Radio 1 tower for Bay St Lawrence.

Photo #2 is a telephoto view of the end of the Cape North Massif; the leftmost point visible in this photo is Cape North itself. If one looks closely at this photo, one will see that there are two slopes here, the nearer one superimposed on the one behind. Money Point (the headland) and its light lie on the far side of the further slope.

The large mass of rock in the center of this photo is known as White Rock; in other views of this scene that I have, its name is well-bestowed, as it appears as distinctly lighter than anything else along this shore, except for the gypsum deposit just above the shore line of the Cape North headland. In this photo, neither feature stands out very well, perhaps because of the angle or the lighting, I’m not sure which.

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Photo #3 is dominated by the Cape North Massif, located well beyond the right edge of photo #1. Left of center near the bottom of this photo, one can make out Deadmans Pond, along the northeastern side of which the marina at Bay St Lawrence is found. St Margarets Village is hidden below the slope in the foreground. Bay Road Valley is at and beyond the right edge of this photo.

A gravel road, accessed from the Bay St Lawrence Road in Bay Road Valley, runs along the top of the Cape North massif out towards Cape North for quite some distance, ending where the Money Point Light trail reaches the top of the Cape North massif. The road is certainly passable for trucks, as I encountered some while I was there in 2007 October; I do not know how drivable it might be for a car, as I have never driven up it (though it’s on my list of future hikes). The views from the road nearest the Money Point Light Trail, while interesting in their own right, did not offer unencumbered vistas of the adjacent areas (the views from the Money Point Light Trail itself, however, were very fine). This year, the Hike the Highlands Festival offered the Money Point Gulch hike with great views from a ridge off this road, but it appears that one needs prior knowledge of how to reach the ridge, which is not currently given on that site.

[2012] In 2011, I finally explored the road along the top of the Cape North Massif as far north as the communications towers, where the road ceased being practical for my car. For information about this road and the marvellous views it offers, see here, here, and here.