Monday, I set out for Meat Cove. The sun was out between Port Hood and Inverness, but I lost it there. When I got to la Grande Falaise in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, it was making an effort to come back out, so I stopped off there to give the sun some time, but it never did really break through for more than a couple of seconds. The photos on this page are some of those I took while I was waiting for it to come out.
ISO 250 25 mm ƒ⁄8 1⁄250 sec
Taken 2014 October 6 in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park from the Cabot Trail
2.8 km (1¾ mi) north of the bridge over the Chéticamp River
GPS 46°40.435′N 60°57.203′W
Photo #1 is a wide-angled view of the impressive Grande Falaise, a huge cliff that is a landmark visible from much of the area to the south and west. I have been unable to determine its exact height, but it is at least 200 m (655 ft) high according to both the topographical maps and Google Earth. Its reddish hue doesn’t stand out as much in this photo as when one sees it looking up from below. The rocks on the rubble pile below the cliff face attest to recent erosion by rain, ice, and wind.
Photo #2 is a telephoto view that brings out the detail of the upper left portion of photo #1. Clarence Barrett indicates that “[t]his bold wall of rock is part of a range of hills that once lay farther to the east. […] [I]t was transported to its present location during a time of collision between the various geologic plates that make up Cape Breton. During the collision, some of the Bras d’Or plate was thrust far to the west of its original position, and it now comprises part of an escarpment running from La Grande Falaise southward to beyond Chéticamp. This belt of rock eventually became isolated from its roots by erosion of the intervening rock. […] Veins of gypsum and calcite near the bottom of the cliff at La Grande Falaise suggest that these minerals, buried somewhere in the highlands, may have acted as a lubricant in the relocation process.” [Cape Breton Highlands National Park, 2014 revised edition, p. 82] I suspect that the patches of white one sees in this photo are one or the other of those minerals.
[continued below]
ISO 250 105 mm ƒ⁄6.3 1⁄640 sec
Taken 2014 October 6 in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park from the Cabot Trail
2.8 km (1¾ mi) north of the bridge over the Chéticamp River
GPS 46°40.447′N 60°57.190′W
ISO 250 25 mm ƒ⁄8 1⁄250 sec
Taken 2014 October 6 in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park from the Cabot Trail
2.8 km (1¾ mi) north of the bridge over the Chéticamp River
GPS 46°40.435′N 60°57.208′W
Photo #3 looks to the east of La Grande Falaise at the narrow valley the Rigwash Brook has carved as it comes down from the Highlands beyond. This is the first photo on this page to really show any fall colours (they are there in the other two photos, but you have to look very closely in order to see them). In this relatively protected area, most of the deciduous trees are still green or shading into yellow from green, but a few have turned orange and will likely be much brighter at peak once the turn is complete. The park provides several picnic tables here; it’s a wonderful spot for a summer lunch in the majesty of La Grande Falaise and the adjacent Highlands.