Three Vistas from the Glencoe Road

The general trend of the Glencoe Road from Long Johns Bridge to the summit of “Mount Glencoe” is from west to east, but, as it descends from “Mount Glencoe” it turns to the east and then to the northeast in Glencoe Mills. From the summit looking behind, the view is to the northwest, to the Port Hood area. Part way down the summit, the view on the left is to the north, looking towards Cape Mabou. From just above the Parish Hall, where dead spruce were cleared a few years ago, the opened views range from the east to the southeast, looking towards Rosedale, Dunakin, and Upper Glencoe. As one arrives in Glencoe Mills, the vista is straight ahead, looking to the northeast towards Brook Village. Four beautiful vistas, each worth stopping for; three of them are shown on this page.

Photo #1 looks towards the northwest from the summit of Mount Glencoe. The tower in the centre of the photo is off the Dunmore Road in Dunmore, outside Port Hood, a straight-line distance of 13.7 km (8.5 mi) from “Mount Glencoe”. Beyond the tower is St Georges Bay, spanning the entire photo. The series of ridges that characterize the terrain here conceals features that would otherwise reveal landmarks. South of Port Hood, the Cèilidh Trail (Highway 19) runs inland of the St Georges Bay coast, but on the far side of the tower. Glencoe Station lies well inland and a bit to the right of the tower, but its location is as invisible as the Cèilidh Trail is from here. The southern end of Port Hood Island is to the left of the tower across Port Hood Harbour, but again the terrain hides both from view.

Photo #2 overlaps with photo #1—the tower is at the left of photo #2, and shows the terrain to the right of the previous view. The Gulf of St Lawrence is at the far right of the photo, with Black Point intersected by the utility wire at the right of the photo. As best as I can determine, the large field to the left of the utility pole is along the Old Rocky Ridge Road and Little Mabou lies beyond. The little patch of road seen to the right of the utility pole is, I believe, the Upper Southwest Mabou Road well northwest of Glencoe Station. From this distance, it is difficult to say much about the state of the foliage, other than that it is definitely changing.

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Photo #3 was taken about 600 m (0.4 mi) down from the summit of “Mount Glencoe” where a small gap in the terrain opens up with a fine view to the north. I will forbear a full description of the features visible here, but will instead refer you to photos #3, #4, and #5 on this web page, where they are described in detail (and with more focussed photographs). I did put Big Bertha to the test here this day, with good results, but nothing any more informative than those shown in last year’s panorama and without as much colour, so I will let them stand in for Big Bertha’s photos.

Photo #4 was taken from just above the Parish Hall looking to the northeast at what I call the “Rosedale Ridge”; if you look towards the top of the forested area, but below the hill in the centre, you will see the path the MacLellan Road takes as it traverses the ridge from Dunakin (on the right) to Rosedale (on the left and well outside the scope of this photo), offering fine views from several points along its course, before ending on the Rosedale Road in Rosedale. I had intended to drive both the MacLellan and Rosedale Roads this fall, but ran out of good weather before I had the chance to do so; two views from the MacLellan Road in 2009 are here and the views from the Rosedale Road I got last year are here. In any case, the colours on this day before the start of the festival were nothing like those seen on those pages.