The Highlands above Lowland Cove

Photo #1 was taken from Lowland Point looking towards the north end of Lowland Cove; the coastal terrain has already been seen on a previous page, but the land behind the coast has not. This telephoto view shows Bear Hill in the distance at the left and that occupying most of the right is the unnamed mountain southwest of Bear Hill.

The Lowland Cove Trail comes out on the coastal plain at the north end of Lowland Cove at the point (at GPS 47°01.274'N 60°36.990'W) which is in the centre of photo #2, a view with a setting half way between telephoto and wide-angled. Clear in the original, but harder to see in this reduced version, three stones are at the right of the grassy path at that point and beside them is a red stake with yellow stripes planted in the ground beside them. Shortly after entering the forest, the grassy path becomes a regular trail that eventually brings you back to Meat Cove. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to locate this spot in photo #1 (hint: the pattern of the trees part way up the mountainside in photo #2 and the slope of that mountainside are useful in finding the spot in photo #1).

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In another view taken with a middling setting, photo #3 looks to the south from the north end of Lowland Cove. The mountain I refer to here as “Lowland Cove Twin Peaks” at the right of photo #3 here has the profile first seen in this essay from Cape St Lawrence. The topographic map shows its height as above 420 m (1380 ft). The cleft at the right of this photo is that carved by Lowland Brook, which curves to the north when it reaches the the far right before finally turning west again to empty into the cove. The much less pronounced cleft coming down on the left is that made by an unnamed rill which enters Lowland Cove just north of the largest “mound”.

Photo #4 is a telephoto view of “Lowland Cove Twin Peaks” south of Lowland Cove. On this perfect spring day, the varied green and yellow hues of the needles and leaves combine for a symphony of colour!

Photo #5 is a wide-angled view showing the cleft carved by Lowland Brook. The lighter green covered ridge at the far right leads down to Lowland Point, which I shall here name the “Lowland Point Ridge”; the mountain behind it will be seen subsequently at Sailor Cove, where it rises on the north side of Sailor Brook. The nearer mountain at the left is a shoulder of “Lowland Cove Twin Peaks”, a small piece of which can be seen at the far left; see photo #3 if you are disoriented.

Photo #6 is a telephoto view of the cleft carved by Lowland Brook. As can be surmised from this view, Lowland Brook rises well inland, issuing forth from bogs on the Cape Breton Highlands Plateau. Because of their forest cover, this cluster of Highlands makes a rather stark contrast with some of the mountains seen further to the south. There are plenty of evergreens showing here, but this area is mainly deciduous in the more protected areas; I suspect it would be a glorious sight at the height of the fall colours.