Northern end of the High Capes area

Photo #1 provides a nice overview of the coast that this page and the following page will examine in greater detail. It lies to the south of “Sailor Brook Mountain South” just below the 47th parallel. On the topographical map, the label for the geographical feature named the High Capes appears 2.5 km (l⅗ mi) south of the mouth of Sailor Brook (at GPS 46°59'N 60°40'W), but it seems appropriate to consider the forested coast to the south of “Sailor Brook Mountain South” as part of the High Capes, the more so since Google Earth clearly shows that the entire coast from “Sailor Brook Mountain South” to the area with the High Capes label is the western side of a connected land mass of more or less constant elevation (of 300 m (985 ft)—and another 20-40 m (65–130 ft) higher inland of the coastal ridge), part of the Cape Breton Highlands Plateau whose edge here falls relatively precipitously into the Gulf.

As one passes by the northern portion of this area, seen in the wide-angled view in photo #1 in the afternoon sun, something different pops out at every instant, as fantastic cliffs, folds, gullies, and rocks embedded in or at the bottom of mostly forested terrain draw and enchant the eye.

Photo #2, like the remaining photos on this page, was taken in the morning and changes the perspective considerably, looking at the forested area to the right of all the sand/dirt/rubble surface showing at the far left of photo #1. The rock face showing in the upper centre of the photo is the one seen in photo #6 on the previous page. The lighter green area in the centre below the summit is a stand of deciduous trees. Though hard to see in this compressed version, the area is full of dead white tree trunks of the same kind seen on the lower slopes; I surmise that these trees were attacked by the spruce bark beetle, succumbed, and the openings they created were populated by opportunistic undergrowth that profited from the sun to grow into the space previously held by the dead evergreens. The reddish rock cliffs continue along the base of the mountain; as seen along the base of the mountain at the left of photo #1, they will expand into the large, mostly forested, sheer cliff face seen in the centre of photo #1.

[continued below]

Photo #3 looks further along the coast past the rock face now at the upper left of the photo. These rocks display a mostly reddish colour, but there are deposits of grey-black rocks interleaved at various points along the shore. At the left of the photo, one can see a dry channel carved into the earth making its way to the bottom of the mountain. Caves and indentations can be seen at the water level. Notice the darkened rock face at the far right: can you guess what you fill find there?

Photo #4 shows that this rock face was carved by a channel, currently dry, that comes down from the ridge up above, slicing a path through forest and rock indiscriminately. The rough surfaces of the rocks almost appear to have been sculpted by a doodling artist, with bumps and bulges and and plenty of curvy wavy lines. A few small patches of grass have managed to establish a foothold, but a coastal plain this in not.

[continued below]

Photos #5 and #6 look further south along the rock face to its end in a promontory that juts out into the Gulf, on the back side of which another dry slide-type channel has been carved by the descending waters from above. In photo #5, patches of grass can again be found along these cliffs (they are larger than they appear—look at the height of a tree) and the forest does its best to colonize any fertile inch of soil it can find.

Photo #6 has much more of the grey/black rock than of the reddish-hued rock, though both appear to be organized in nearly vertical strata.